Kin-Dza-Dza

1986 Russian sci-fi comedy

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Two Russian guys meet an alien trying to get coordinates to his planet, and after not believing him and pushing a button on the little device he's holding, find themselves on a desert planet. They enlist the help of a couple guys who may not be all that trustworthy.

"If a society doesn't have color differentiation of pants, it has no purpose!"

Highly-recommended Russian sci-fi absurdism, like a mash-up of Waiting for Godot and Mad Max. You never really know where this little adventure is going, mostly because it actually doesn't go anywhere. Filled with non-sequiturs, red herrings, and pointless gags and bits of absurdist dialogue, Kin-Dza-Dza also takes some jabs at capitalism and the West's tendencies to create hierarchies of human beings. It's exceptionally witty for being something that is so nonsensical.

Great performances with everybody taking this whole thing completely seriously, a fun exercise in linguistics until the producers of this thing got bored and went with telepathy instead, and creative visuals constructed from next-to-nothing or maybe some junkyard finds keep this thing effervescent and rewarding. I loved the spaceship, kind of resembling a giant metallic bucket, and there's a great shot of a city that consists of a few metal structures and a half-buried ferris wheel that I really liked.

There's even an actress credited as "A Fat Woman Settled Under the Ferris Wheel," something I'd hate to put on a resume.

Throw in some cute songs and dances and this quiet unpredictability, and you've got a Russian comedy from the tail-end of the Cold War that is funnier than you'd ever expect and never boring. It's great stuff!