Remembering that this movie was made in Soviet Union during the times, when you could still get to prison because of a joke, you naturally start wondering if the freedom of speech actually brought us something or robbed us of a real "finesse" of expression and metaphore. This is a powerful and corageous tale of a peculiar man in hypocritical society, that will not leave anyone unmoved. Even though the acting might appear static sometimes, Jankovsky is at his best in the main role and will save a hurried Western spectator the pain of sitting through the example of typical union of theatre and cinema in Russian style, and make it watchable not only for "european and rare" movie fricks. It also has a merit of being sort of a cult movie, and a good introduction to the culture that it presents indirectly, reflecting at the same time the ever-lasting russian struggle of saying things, so as to stay balancing on the edge, that will permit you to be understood by intelligent people, and still ignored by a watchful big brother(liable to tear you apart) and the fascination and identification with European history and culture - forbidden fruit at those times still.
Review of The Very Same Munchhausen
