What a Mess!

What a Mess! (Russian: Ширли-мырли, romanized: Shirli-Myrli) is a 1995 farce comedy film of the early post-soviet era directed by Vladimir Menshov.[1] Although light hearted, the movie satirizes chauvinism, antisemitism and other ethnic tensions in the 1990s Russia. Valery Garkalin plays multiple roles as identical twins who were raised believing they belong to different cultures and races and used to look down on each other's. Wholistically the film is a microcosm of 90s Russian cultural landscape, lampooning a wide variety of subjects including the incompetence of Russian police officers, as well as the profligate mannerisms of Americans.

What a Mess!
Directed byVladimir Menshov
Produced byVladimir Dostal
Alexander Litvinov
Written byVladimir Menshov
Vitaliy Moskalenko
Andrei Samsonov
StarringValery Garkalin
Vera Alentova
Inna Churikova
Igor Ugolnikov
Music byTimur Kogan
CinematographyVadim Alisov
Production
company
Release date
  • 1995 (1995)
Running time
136 minutes
CountryRussia
LanguageRussian

Plot summary

While digging in the mine Unpromising in Yakutia an unprecedentedly large diamond was found. It is christened as the Savior of Russia. Officials proclaim that the sale of the diamond could pay for every Russian citizen to take a three-year-long vacation at the Canary Islands.

When the diamond is being transported to Moscow (by Antonov An-124 Ruslan)[1] it is stolen by the crime boss Kozulskiy (Armen Dzhigarkhanyan), who is then robbed by professional thief Vasiliy Krolikov (Valeri Garkalin).

For the remainder of the film, the plot revolves around Krolikov and his two other identical Multiple birth brothers. Krolikov is pursued by Kozulskiy's mafia and two Militsiya officers - Jean-Paul Piskunov (Igor Ugolnikov) and an unnamed lieutenant (Sergey Batalov). At the end of the film Vasiliy discovers that there is a fourth brother, making all characters played by Garkalin at least quadruplets.

Cast

References
  1. ""Ширли-мырли"". Энциклопедия отечественного кино. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05.


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