Based on the famous fairytale "The Tinderbox" by Hans Christian Andersen. The main character of the film is a puppeteer who lives in a poor and gray world. He composes a fairy tale in which he himself, in the guise of a brave soldier, finds a flint and is helped by a kind wizard. The soldier falls in love with a spoiled, capricious princess who, as befits a princess, poses riddles to her numerous suitors. Her father, the king, is eager to see the soldier as her husband, as he believes the soldier has a great deal of gold. In the fairy tale, everything ends well, but in real life, not so much. "But life is not a fairy tale," his beloved girl says to him as she bids him farewell.
Acting
Oleg Dal's heartbreaking dual performance.
Production
Seamless blend of dreary reality and candy-colored fantasy.
Writing
Andersen adaptation that interrogates its own source material.
Director
Nadezhda Kosheverova
Oleg Dal
Soldier / Puppet master
Marina Neyolova
Princess / innkeeper's daughter
Vladimir Etush
King / Innkeeper
Georgiy Vitsin
good wizard
Vera Titova
witch / davil's grandmother
Viktor Perevalov
Prince-chimney sweep
Georgiy Shtil
Eastern Prince
Anatoly Korolkevich
doorman
Georgi Georgiu
"thick"
Lev Lemke
"thin"
Igor Dmitriev
Boris Lyoskin
Anatoli Abramov
contender for groom
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
A rare Soviet musical that sneaks existential despair into state-approved family entertainment.
Director Kosheverova was known for fairytales; this was her darkest, allegedly her favorite.
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