A group of old friends have a tradition of going to a public bathing house on New Year's Eve. Occasionally too much vodka and beer makes two of them unconscious. The problem is that one of them (Sasha) has to go to Leningrad but another one (Zhenya) goes. Zhenya wakes up at Leningrad airport. Believing that he is still in Moscow he takes a taxi and goes home. The street name, building and even apartment number, the way an apartment complex looks the same and the key coincide completely - just typical Soviet-type 'economy' architecture. Imagine the surprise of Nadya when she enters her apartment and finds a man without trousers in her bed. What's more - Nadya's fiancé also finds him there...
Acting
Myagkov and Brylska's exquisite slow-burn chemistry.
Writing
Ryazanov's surgical satire of prefab Soviet existence.
Production
Identical apartments become profound commentary.
Director
Eldar Ryazanov
Andrey Myagkov
Zhenya Lukashin
Barbara Brylska
Nadia Sheveleva
Yuriy Yakovlev
Hippolytus Georgievich
Aleksandr Shirvindt
Pavel
Georgi Burkov
Misha
Aleksandr Belyavskiy
Sasha
Liya Akhedzhakova
Tanya, Nadia's friend
Valentina Talyzina
Nadia's friend
Lyubov Dobrzhanskaya
Zhenya's mom
Lyubov Sokolova
Nadia's mom
Olga Naumenko
Galya
Gotlib Roninson
passenger at the airport
Eldar Ryazanov
airplane passenger
Elena Naumkina
barmaid at the airport (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Broadcast annually since 1976, this became Russia's unofficial 'It's a Wonderful Life' — families watch it every New Year's Eve while drinking champagne.
The identical apartment buildings were real: Ryazanov filmed in actual Moscow and Leningrad prefab complexes that were genuinely indistinguishable.
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