Sadko

Charming and naive, Alexandr Ptushko's version of Sadko maintains the ingenuity of the fairy tale through the golden touch of imaginative coloring and splendid characters ingrained in the Russian folklore, which at the same time are part of the universal lore. Add to this Rimmsky-Korsakov's magical music, and lo and behold, a dearest masterpiece to feast eyes and endear hearts. Ptushko used to work under stressing circumstances, political as well as cultural, within a government-controlled industry, where ideology ruled over imagination. However, the artist surpassed the militant many times. Sadko concedes to the nationalistic trend in tyrannies proclaiming, in this case, the 'proud of been a Russian", heard as an echo of fascistic hypes on 'selected people or race"; but it is done with such an obvious declarative tone that the imposition of dialogs and lines comes clear to the viewer. Hail to a filmmaker who conceived films as a domain for the illusive and the innocence.