Man returns from vacation to find he's already been buried. Bureaucracy is *literally* the death of him.
Semyon Danilovich Petukhov was very surprised to found upon returning from vacation that he was declared dead and... buried.
Acting
Plyatt's escalating panic as a man erased by his own life.
Direction
Gaidai crafts 48 minutes of pure bureaucratic nightmare fuel.
Writing
Satire so sharp it could cut Soviet red tape.
Director
Leonid Gaidai
Rostislav Plyatt
Semyon Danilovich Petukhov
Georgiy Vitsin
Pyotr Petrovich Fikusov
Vera Altayskaya
Nina Pavlovna
Rina Zelyonaya
Nina's mom
Anastasiya Zuyeva
Anna Mikhaylovna, cashier
Vladimir Vladislavskiy
Psychiatrist
Zoya Fyodorova
Elizaveta Vladimirovna, chief doctor
Klarina Frolova-Vorontsova
Woman in line
Pavel Tarasov
Bookkeeper
Tatyana Guretskaya
K.U.K.U. employee
Lidiya Dranovskaya
Khokhotushka, K.U.K.U. employee
Klara Rumyanova
Klavochka - registrator
Aleksandra Danilova
Vera Anatolyevna, K.U.K.U. employee
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Gaidai became the undisputed king of Soviet comedy; this early short established his signature rhythm of escalating man-versus-system panic that would peak in his 1960s masterpieces.
The 48-minute runtime wasn't artistic choice—Soviet film studios often commissioned 'novellas' to fill out feature presentations, creating this perfect pressure-cooker format.
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