Lenin Was a Mushroom

Four hosts discuss some current news and comment on different issues in politics and economics, similar to 7 Tage, 7 Köpfe. The show's name is a reference to the 80s TV program "Прожектор Перестройки" - a program that was discussing current events on Soviet television during the times of Perestroika - and American socialite Paris Hilton, who, according to Svetlakov, symbolizes lack of taste. Thus, the name of the show implies that this is a current events program that shouldn't be taken seriously.

Five passengers - the Bandit, his friend Matvei, Matvei's old father, the Musician, and a young woman - race along an empty road in a big black jeep, searching for the Belfry of Happiness which, according to hearsay, lies somewhere between St. Petersburg and the town of Uglich, near a deserted nuclear power station. The Belfry takes people, but it does not take everyone. Each of the five passengers believes that he or she will be chosen.

Nobody likes to be made a fool of, especially no the mafia. So, when it comes to light that a number of men from The Mob in New York have fallen for a Russian mail-order bride, who has blatantly ripped each of them off, their boss is not impressed. In fact, Tony Santini thinks the only way to prove that you shouldn't mess with the mob is to send his nephew to Russia to bring back the beautiful but manipulative Nina.

The film “Andrey Konchalovsky’s Cinema Odyssey” is a tribute to the creative path of one of our outstanding contemporaries, Andrey Konchalovsky, spanning from his debut film, “The Boy and the Dove”, which was immediately invited to the Venice International Film Festival, to the present day. The documentary features notable figures who starred in the master’s films, from Sergei Shakurov to Tom Holtz, from Inna Churikova to Irina Kupchenko. Dividing his work into ‘periods’ — classical, American, and the perestroika era — Konchalovsky, with the help of the cinema, embarks on a cinematic journey akin to Odysseus, ultimately returning to his own ‘Penelope’: Moscow.

In January 1989 the first Message to Man International Film Festival took place in Leningrad. This film, made during the festival, is a record of its events, guests and participants, such as the American director Leo Hurwitz, the Latvian director Ivars Seleckis, and the ballerina Natalya Makarova, among others. It also shows the “engine room” of the festival: the work of the main office and the PROKKa professional cinematographers’ club, guests being greeted and seen off. A charity evening with Natalya Makarova, a memorial service to commemorate the victims of the war and excerpts of documentary films presented at the festival are also featured.

The film is dedicated to the director-artist Alexander Rogozhkin, one of the creators of Russian mythology.

The film is dedicated to our wonderful contemporary from Leningrad-St. Petersburg Valentin Elbek.