Honorable Mention
I once suggested that the Strugatsky Brothers — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, perhaps the most famous Soviet era science fiction and fantasy writers — might be the most adapted science fiction writers in the world.
The truth is that Ray Bradbury probably wins because of all the episodes of his Ray Bradbury Theater — which he adapted himself from his own stories. But it is still surprising just how many of the Brothers’ stories were adapted, either to the movies or television. They were not only best sellers in Russia and Eastern Europe, but a few of their books actually got reprinted in the U.S.
Other than Stanislaw Lem, no one else from behind the Iron Curtain seems to have managed that. Like Lem, their work can vary from absurd comedy to deadly serious and philosophical. After all, their stories range from the dark view of mankind found in Hard to be a God and the Inhabited Island/Dark Planet movies, to the light-hearted absurdity and comedy of Monday Begins on Saturday.
This particular film was an accidental find: I stumbled across the title on a list of their adaptations and, much to my amazement, turned up a copy on YouTube immediately after.
And, I’ll admit, I was quite taken by the very strange approach taken by this television adaptation. Clearly, they didn’t have much of a budget, and only had a tiny soundstage to work with. If it weren’t for certain more ambitious Chromakey appearances and disappearances, I might almost think they’d shot it live.
Although that still doesn’t entirely rule that out.
The background for most of the film consists of a series of very simple outline drawings done in a thin black line on white. This is the only exterior scenery we get. At one point, as the three travel in the car, with the background moving behind them: at one point it becomes obvious that this background is literally projected on the wall as you can see the simple line art on the car itself.
There are more substantial sets for the interior although this is mildly jarring. However, the signs we see in some of those locations, like the local bar and the Institute itself, use the same art style and eccentric lettering styles used in the backgrounds and opening credits.
Aleksandr Privalov, a young man on a road trip stops to pick up a pair of hitchhikers. When they learn that he is a computer programmer, they beg him to give up his current job and get transferred to their Institute.
He’s got a great job, so naturally he’s reluctant, but he needs a place to stay overnight and he grudgingly accepts their offer of a bunk in their dormitory.
Only they change their mind and instead take him to a cabin run by the Institute, one which just happens to be on a set of chicken legs.
And his night proves increasingly strange as he encounters a talking cat, a mermaid, a wish-granting fish, and a bureaucrat who can phase through walls…
It doesn’t take too much to recognize a lot of classic fairy tales in the mix, and the events get stranger as the day continues: his bed gets stolen, his pocket change keeps returning to him, and the local policeman is threatening to arrest him.
This is one of those stories where it is almost impossible to comment on it without giving away most of the story. However, you may be able to guess where the story is going when you see Aleksandr’s response to all this insanity: he immediately begins to study what is happening to him, take notes and even sets up a few little experiments.
We eventually learn that the Institute is [Spoiler] called “the National Institute for the Technology of Witchcraft and Thaumaturgy” or “NITWiT” (I love that acronym!) and they are in the business of making everyone’s life better by studying fairy tale magic.
And applying scientific rigor to the investigation of these miraculous events.
[End Spoilers]
All this takes place backed by an antic score played on accordion. It sets a cheerful and carefree sort of tone for the story, which makes Aleksandr’s travails more comic.
The cast is quite small and, with the exception of the witch, all dressed in routine modern clothes (which saves them a lot of cash).
However, strangely enough, several of the magical creatures — the talkative cat, the pike which lives in the well and grants wishes, and the mermaid, are all puppets — but very toylike puppets which look more like a child’s prized stuffed animal (particularly that cat!).
Frankly, I enjoyed the very primitivism of this production, and how they found ways to work around their limits. It’s a remarkably cheerful and amiable little comedy, not afraid to show off its own minimalism. You can almost imagine a children’s show from the Fifties looking like this — even though this clearly wasn’t aimed at a children’s audience as our hero drinks, smokes, and uses a magical Five Kopek piece to steal from a local business.
Nor, despite the Fairy Tale background, there is no great moral to the tale.
Although the notion of one working hard at one’s job because you love it remains one of those ideas which keep showing up in Soviet era portrayals of perfect societies (see, for example, the Czech film Man in Outer Space).
Although it seems less propagandistic when you are saying it about people who have taken on this particular occupation.
However, what is strange is comparing this lighthearted comic story to some of the Strugatsky Brothers better known stories, the dark and gritty tales adapted in films like Stalker, Hard to Be a God, and the Inhabited Island films. It’s hard to believe such radically different stories came from the same authors.
But perhaps that is what explains their success…
https://archive.org/details/monday-begins-on-saturday-.-english-subs
rivets on the poster 
Thank you so much for your kind words! It is indeed a nostalgic experience from the past 🙂
“If it weren’t for certain more ambitious Chromakey appearances and disappearances, I might almost think they’d shot it live.”
In actual fact, you’re right. This is the kind of show which was very common on Soviet television: not a film but what was called “TV theater” meaning that it was indeed broadcast live or nearly live as actors adlibbed in the studio as they would on stage with little technical preparation. Very few copies of such shows surived because in most cases there were no copies to keep, just a live show which was never recorded. My father used to direct quite a few of those in the 1960 and 1970s. This show is virtually identical to those he used to make…
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Awesome! That explains so much. I wonder if they did the phasing through the walls trick live with Chromakey, the way Ernie Kovacs did some of his tricks?
Thank you so much for the background information! We’re just lucky that this fun little show somehow survived!
BTW, do you constantly get asked if you have a sense of snow (or does that obscure little reference go clean over your head, LOL? 😉 )…
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Hi Smilla, I’m currently doing research for a book on soviet science-fiction cinema. I’d love to know more about the work your father did. If he made any sf/fantasy films, I’d certainly be very interested, even if they’re lost. If he didn’t, anything more you’d like to tell about how he worked would be fascinating.
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