A corrupt civil servant's rise and spectacular fall — Soviet satire that still stings.
Acting
Gundareva's devastating turn as the scheming wife.
Writing
Ostrovsky's dialogue cuts like a blade.
Director
Leonid Heyfets
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ostrovsky wrote this in 1863, yet Soviet TV resurrected it to skewer Brezhnev-era stagnation. The bite never dulled.
Andrei Popov was a legendary comic actor; casting him as the pathetic protagonist was deliberate, tragic subversion.
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