Synopsis

Happiness is the stylized Russian folk tale about a poor and lazy peasant by the name of Khmyr, who dreams of becoming a tsar, eating his fill of pork fat and doing nothing (his idea of happiness), and his industrious wife, Anna, who found real happiness on a collective farm after the revolution. The film contains drawn scenery amusingly transplanted into cinema from popular Russian wood prints, ingenious and always purposeful tricks, hilarious scenes of the wanderings around Russia of a scraggly and vicious pilgrim nun, and talented sideshows of “dreams”and “royal repasts”of Khmyr. Considered one of the masters of Russia’s revolution generation filmmakers and nicknamed Russia’s Chaplin by Eisenstein, Aleksandr Medvedkin presents the epitomy of comedy and tragedy through over-the-top satire and humor in this film.

Director

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  • Aleksandr Medvedkin
  • Born in Penza, Russia, in 1900 and passed away in Moscow in 1989. He joined the Red Cavalry of Budyonny in 1919 and began working in the Propaganda Department. In the 1920s, he worked for the propaganda department of the Red Army. In 1927, he moved to the film department and began making short and satirical films. In 1934, he directed his first feature film, Happiness. During World War II, he recorded the war on the front lines. After the war, he continued working on documentaries and won the title of Soviet People's Artist twice, in 1969 and 1979.