Kin-dza-dza! (1986)

Two Russians push the wrong button on a strange device and end up on the telepathic planet Pluke with its strange societal norms.

Director:

Georgiy Daneliya

Writers:

Georgiy Daneliya, Revaz Gabriadze

Stars:

Stanislav Lyubshin, Evgeniy Leonov, Yuriy Yakovlev

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Stanislav Lyubshin	...	Vladimir Nikolaevich Mashkov - 'Uncle Vova'
Evgeniy Leonov	...	Wef - The Wandering Chatlanian Singer
Yuriy Yakovlev	...	Bee - the wandering Patsak singer
Levan Gabriadze	...	Gedevan Alexandrovich Alexidze - 'Fiddler'
Olga Mashnaya	...	Decont - a teleportation officer at Alpha
Irina Shmeleva	...	Tsan - The Desert Stage-Cart Driver
Lev Perfilov	...	Kyrr - the Chatlanian-dissident
Anatoliy Serenko	...	The Space Drifter From Uzm (as A.Serenko)
Aleksandra Dorokhina	...	The Huge Woman at Subway Station (as A. Dorokhina)
Olesya Ivanova	...	A Fat Woman Settled Under the Ferris Wheel (as O. Ivanova)
Tatyana Novitskaya	...	The Presentation Crystal Owner (as T. Novitskaya)
Tatyana Perfileva	...	An old woman in a subway cart (as T.Perfilyeva)
Lyudmila Solodenko	...	A Swarthy Woman Settled Under the Ferris Wheel (as L. Solodenko)
Galina Daneliya-Yurkova	...	Lyudmila Mashkova - 'Lucia' (as G. Yurkova)
Igor Bogolyubov	...	Lord PG's personal Patsak (as I.Bogolyubov)

Storyline

Kin-Dza-Dza is something like an "advanced cyberpunk film". It's a lot about people and social structures which on the planet of "Pluke" of course have many parallels to our society. It's a very funny movie, but it's also a melancholic movie with great philosophical sense.

---

Plot Keywords:

planet | galaxy | matches | desert | husband wife relationship | 

---

Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Sci-Fi

---

Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Georgian Russian

Release Date:

1 December 1986 (Soviet Union)

Also Known As:

Husigi Wakusei Kin-Za-Za

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mosfilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min (2 parts) 128 min (DVD)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie has been released on DVD in Russia but has gained virtually no notice elsewhere, with the exception of Japan. This is largely due to the fact that there was no official release of the movie with English subtitles for a long time. While the movie was in the making, a censorship threat emerged due to the use of the word Ku (Koo) which sounded like the initials "K. U." of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR at the time, K. U. Chernenko. Chernenko who assumed the leadership in 1984, died in 1985, and this removed the danger.

---

Quotes

Uef: You on Earth have a very primitive society, you don't even make differences by the colour of one's pants.

---

Connections

Referenced in Evening Urgant: EMIN (2019)

User Reviews

Great thinking movie

One of my favorite best. Saw it when if first came out in theaters, and then saw it again and again... The film-making is very good, however the technical problems with camera work and poor quality of the film itself did not help. Slow and deliberate pacing at times this movie gets under your skin if you are paying attention. Open mind for this movie is a must. What makes this movie great is unbelievable social satire. In short, you got to see it several times to believe it. This movie forced critical thinking in USSR circa 1986, and it still makes you ponder things in US circa 2005. Dealing with humanistic topics such as social hierarchy, lowest common denominator, human resilience and so on, this movie should be recognized on par with the classics of Felini and Tarkovsky.