The beginning of the 20th century. Everyone knows the pub "Gambrinus" in the southern seaside town. Here you can always get a mug of fresh beer, meet your friends, have a quick word with the hostess Madame Ivanova and, of course, listen to the inimitable playing of violinist Sasha.
Acting
Mikhail Bezverhny's Sasha—grace and ruin in one bow stroke.
Production
The pub itself: lived-in, boozy, a character with sawdust soul.
Director
Dmitry Meskhiev
Nina Ruslanova
мадам Иванова
Mikhail Bezverhny
Сашка, скрипач
Irina Rozanova
Катя
Aleksandr Trofimov
тапёр
Boris Plotnikov
вор
Viktor Pavlov
городовой
Lev Borisov
рыбак
Ernst Romanov
чиновник
Fyodor Odinokov
барин
Yuriy Dubrovin
«князь Голицын»
Vladimir Yumatov
Aleksandr Vilkov
Olga Lebedeva
Vladimir Dolinskiy
Svetlana Frolova
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Mikhail Bezverhny was a real concert violinist who'd fallen from Soviet grace; Meskhiev cast him after seeing him play in a Leningrad park for kopecks.
The title references the legendary king of beer, but the film subverts it—this Gambrinus is running dry, mirroring the USSR's own last call.
SU
