A Soviet village idiot becomes the smartest guy in the room — accidentally.
Alexei Gorokhov, a village boy, is known as an oddball and a madman. He is full of unbelievable ideas that make his fellow villagers laugh, but they turn out to be not so absurd: potatoes planted in nets yielded a bountiful harvest; a piglet taken for "education" turned into a good pig; and a well appeared near the school...
Acting
Kirill Dvorsky's unhinged yet tender madness.
Writing
Gag structure that lands with poetic inevitability.
Production
Authentic Soviet village atmosphere, lived-in and unglamorous.
Director
Aleksandr Polynnikov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Perestroika's early thaw, the film gently satirizes Soviet bureaucracy's hostility to individual innovation — a theme that grew sharper as reforms accelerated.
Director Aleksandr Polynnikov largely abandoned fiction after 1991 for documentary work; this remains one of his most widely distributed narrative features, though still obscure outside Russia.
SU
