Assa (1987)

ASSA is set in Crimea during the winter in the mid eighties. A young musician (Bananan) falls for mobster's (Krymov) young mistress (Alika). The parallel story line involves an 18th century... See full summary »

Director:

Sergey Solovyov

Writers:

Sergey Livnev, Sergey Solovyov

Stars:

Natan Eidelman, Anatoli Slivnikov, German Shorr

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Natan Eidelman	...	Narrator (voice)
Anatoli Slivnikov	...	Ambal
German Shorr	...	Chir
Ilya Ivanov	...	Shar
Aleksandr Bashirov	...	Major
Viktor Tsoy	...	Himself
Sergei Ryzhenko	...	Himself
Timur Novikov	...	Himself
Andrei Krisanov	...	Himself
Georgi Guryanov	...	Himself (as G. Guryanov)
Kirill Kozakov	...	Platon Zubov
Aleksandr Domogarov	...	Alexander I
Dmitri Dolinin	...	Paul I
Andrei Khalyavin	...	Boroda
Irena Kuksenaite	...	Boroda's Companion

Storyline

ASSA is set in Crimea during the winter in the mid eighties. A young musician (Bananan) falls for mobster's (Krymov) young mistress (Alika). The parallel story line involves an 18th century assassination plot.

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Plot Keywords:

mobster | concert | rock band | criminal | car chase | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | History | Music | Romance

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Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian French

Release Date:

November 1987 (Soviet Union)

Also Known As:

Асса

Filming Locations:

Crimea, Ukraine

Company Credits

Production Co:

Krug, Mosfilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

153 min

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Swimming scenes were shot in summer, so the snow on water and land is artificial.

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Connections

Followed by Chyornaya roza - emblema pechali, krasnaya roza - emblema lyubvi (1989)

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Soundtracks

"VVS"
Written by Aleksandr Sinitsyn

User Reviews

An unpleasant freak-show with very bitter taste

One can find many redeeming qualities inside this movie, I am sure. But to me it is a very peculiar film to be enjoyed.

My point is: certain things are destroying this movie. Here I mean unpleasant and filthy atmosphere. It creeps onto you gradually and makes viewing of the whole thing kind of repellent. Yes, it's got nice pieces of music (including the last song performed by a cult Soviet/Russian musician), it's got some inventive touches: weird vocabulary (too detailed though), a strange Bananan's "dream" sequence (too short and cheap); strange theatrical "freak-show" (too depressive and awkward to my taste), juxtaposition of different time periods in the history of our country (too dark and gloomy), and so on. It has wacky characters (schizophrenics, dwarfs, boozers, punks, maniacal killers, and Soviet squares) as well. But if the movie is aesthetically repellent, it gets into a ditch no matter how much potential it has. First time I saw it, it seemed fresh and innovative, but in the course of time it gets … plain (meaning "ugly") and sick, sorry.

By the way, in our country a gramophone record "Assa" was once released that contained all the songs from the movie (as I remember, "VVS, Voienno-Vozdushniye Sily" was our favourite at school).

Can give it 4 out of 10 only (the points are mostly for its freaking pieces of music compositions - alas, this movie is an example of "frustrated gifts", like "A Clockwork Orange"). Thank you for attention.