Korolevstvo krivykh zerkal (1964)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Aleksandr Rou

Writers:

Lev Arkadyev (writer)
Vitali Gubarev (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 February 1973 (Finland)

Genre:

Family | Fantasy

Plot Keywords:

Mirror | Bright Color | Hole | Twins | Bizarre

Cast

Olga Yukina	...	Olya (as Olya Yukina)
Tatyana Yukina	...	Yalo (as Tanya Yukina)
Tatyana Barysheva	...	Grandmother
Anatoli Kubatsky	...	Jagupop 77
Andrei Fajt	...	Nushrok
Lidiya Vertinskaya	...	Anidag (as L. Vertinskaya)
Arkadi Tsinman	...	Abag
Andrei Stapran	...	Gurd
Ivan Kuznetsov		(as I. Kuznetsov)
Georgi Millyar
Pavel Pavlenko	...	Ministr
Tamara Nosova	...	Aunt Aksal
Vera Altajskaya	...	Asirk
Aleksandr Khvylya
Valentin Bryleyev

Also Known As:

Королевство кривых зеркал (Soviet Union: Russian title)
Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors (USA) (video title)
The Kingdom of False Mirrors
The Kingdom of the Looking Glass (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-8

This film is nothing like Alice in Wonderland

People, people! This film is nothing like Alice in Wonderland and forget about "cheap special effects." This is a Soviet film from the 60's after all. The broken jar has nothing to do with special mushrooms. Tarrop is not like criticisms of W; its a tongue-and-cheek criticism of "rotten capitalism". Its pure and abashed sly propaganda aimed at children. But of course, having watched it as a kid growing up in USSR, you get engrossed with the actual fairy-tales aspects of having strong friendships, being honest, etc.. Yes, in Soviet films, they always made girls' dresses short, but in schools you would be kicked out if your dress was shorter than knee-length. Part of that was to project a young naive perfect little Pioneer girls who were completely asexual. But you have to remember that during Soviet times we, youngsters, played outside, by ourselves, past midnight and never even wondered if we would get kidnapped. It was safer for kids there in that respect. Otherwise, it was a straight-forward propaganda tale that also taught kids good moral qualities, without all the super-junky-sugar coat freakiness of Disney cartoons. It is reminiscent of the cartoon "Three Fatsos" where there is also a commentary against imperialist enslavement of people via classism and basically call for unity of proletariats. Or even an Italian story of "Adventures of Chipollino". Again, everyone, it is not alike to Alice in Wonderland (how irritating and presumptuous)! It is a great Soviet classic!