VASKA EASOFF

Once upon a time Vaska, greatest uncaught thief in St. Petersburg, has a surprise visitor: Vanka, greatest thief from the countryside, who proposes a partnership. Using enchanted burgler tools, the outlaw duo raids the State bank vaults filled with Czarist gold. The authorities are outraged, and turn to their own brand of socialist sorcery )like the Great Soviet Billy Goat) to track down the rogues. VASKA EASOFF is a magical fantasy straight out of “The Arabian Nights” – but the setting is the Stalinist era. Prisoners of Russian labor camps would spin folk-satires, grounded in the day-to-day reality of the USSR, to keep themselves amused and to mock Communist officialdom. Here is one of those uproarious tall tales, superbly visualized. Part Terry Gilliam, part Sergei Eisenstein (scratches, splices and all), and mostly like nothing you've ever seen before, VASKA EASOFF will steal your heart, at the very least. (Russian dialogue and Hungarian narration with English subtitles) – Charles Cassady