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Kin-dza-dza! (Russian: Кин-дза-дза!) is a 1986 Soviet film released by the Mosfilm studio and directed by Georgiy Daneliya, with a story by Georgiy Daneliya and Revaz Gabriadze.

Kin-dza-dza!
VHS cover
Russian	Кин-дза-дза!
Directed by	Georgiy Daneliya
Written by	Georgiy Daneliya Revaz Gabriadze
Starring	Stanislav Lyubshin Yevgeni Leonov Yury Yakovlev Levan Gabriadze
Cinematography	Pavel Lebeshev
Edited by	Natalya Dobrunova
Music by	Gia Kancheli
Distributed by	Sovexportfilm
Release date	1 December 1986 (1986-12-01)
Running time	135 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Languages	Russian Georgian

Plot

The story begins in 1980s Moscow. Vladimir Mashkov (Stanislav Lyubshin), aka Uncle Vova, a generic but gruff construction foreman, is relaxing at home after a stressful day at work. His wife asks him to buy some groceries, so Vova goes out to the nearest store. Standing right in the city centre on Kalinin Prospekt (now New Arbat Avenue), is a barefoot man, dressed in a tattered coat, who appeals to passersby with a strange request: «Tell me the number of your planet in the Tentura? Or at least the number of your galaxy in the Spiral?». Uncle Vova is approached by a young Georgian student named Gedevan (Levan Gabriadze), who carries a violin around, and asked to help with the strange man, so both Uncle Vova and Gedevan decide to interfere. During a short conversation, the stranger shows them a small device he calls the «translocation machine». Uncle Vova decides to test the veracity of the stranger's story, and despite his warnings, presses a random button on the device. Suddenly, Uncle Vova and Gedevan instantly find themselves alone in the sandy desert under the scorching sun. Assuming that they are in the Karakum Desert, they head off at random toward Ashgabat.

An unknown flying machine lands on their way, from which two men come out, one of whom is in a cage. They perform a strange ritual, then ransack through Uncle Vova and Gedevan belongings and fly away. Uncle Vova, annoyed that he could not arrange a «ride to the city», lights a cigarette. Seeing a match in Uncle Vova's hands, the men in the flying machine immediately return, and one of them shouts «Ketse!», pointing to a box of matches. In the end, Uncle Vova promises to give them the ketse in exchange for a flight to the city. During the flight, Uncle Vova and Gedevan find out that their new acquaintances, named Uef (Yevgeni Leonov) and Bi (Yury Yakovlev), can speak Russian, but not because they are in Russia on even on Earth: they are at the planet Pluke in the Kin-dza-dza galaxy. The natives of the planet appear human, but they are telepathic and have a very limited speaking vocabulary, with the majority of the words expressed by the single word ku. However, the Plukanians are able to quickly adapt to speaking and understanding other languages.

Uef and Bi introduce themselves as poor busking performers and describe Pluke as an ex-paradise planet much more technologically advanced than Earth, whose dwellers eventually recycled all water into fuel («lutz») and turned their planet into a piece of barren land with no flora or fauna. The local civilization also eventually degraded into a barbaric culture, which satirically resembles that of humans. Most of the technology is rusted and broken, people wear whatever clothing they can find and eat plastic. Drinking water is a valuable commodity and can only be made from lutz. The local art has degenerated to the rhythmic shouting of «Ku!». The occupations and interests of the natives, who can fly between the stars and read minds, are reduced to the strict set of rules of subordination and to the search for ketse, the very expensive and valuable material, which can be used in a lot of sophisticated ways, and the mere presence of which defines one's social standing.

The society of Pluke is divided into two categories: Chatlanians and Patsaks. The difference is ascertained only by means of a small handheld device, the «visator», similar in appearance to a flash drive; when pointed at a member of the Chatlanian group, an orange light on the device comes on; when pointed at a member of the Patsak group, a green light comes on. It is also noted that the social differences between Patsaks and Chatlanians are not constant: Pluke is a Chatlanian planet, and Chatlanians are privileged there, so, to show flattery, every Patsak has to wear a tsak, a small bell, in their nose, squat before Chatlanians while saying «Ku!», can only perform in cages, are subject to segregation in public transport systems, and they also receive harsher punishments. Uef is a Chatlanian, and Bi is a Patsak. The visator shows that both Uncle Vova and Gedevan are Patsaks, so they also have to participate in local rituals. The only group allowed to use weapons (tranklucators) and enforce their will are the ecilopps, the local police force, with their very distinctive flashing light headbands. Outside being a Patsak or Chatlanin, respect towards others is determined by the color of their pants. The nominal leader of the Plukanian society is known as Mr. P-Zh; everybody makes their best to display fervent worship to him, and disrespect is severely punished.

Since Uncle Vova's cheap box of matches appeared to be the actual ketse the whole Pluke's hunting for, Uef and Bi agree to take the Earthlings back home on a promise they would give them a lot of ketse when they're finally there. However, their flying machine (known as pepelats) is missing a unit necessary for interstellar flights, the gravitsappa, which costs half of a ketse. Uef decides to save some money, and, instead of flying to the central city for a normal gravitsappa, sets the course to the smugglers' place. Their leader shows Uncle Vova a gravitsappa. Not knowing the true value of ketse, Uncle Vova, in hope of getting some water and food along with it, gives all his matches to the smugglers to «check», but they suddenly escape on their ship and leave him bare-handed. As a result, the Earthlings are abandoned by the buskers as well. Uncle Vova and Gedevan are forced to find other ways to earn and survive. They soon discover a new source of income: Earth songs performed by them are unexpectedly very popular with the Plukanians.

After a while, Uncle Vova and Gedevan once again meet Uef and Bi. A conflict occurs in which Gedevan's violin breaks, and the heroes discover a match that was accidentally caught inside. Uef and Bi, hoping to buy a gravitsappa and fly to Earth, where they can purchase large amounts of ketse, take Gedevan and Uncle Vova to the local planetarium to find out the exact location of the Earth, while Gedevan constantly tries to snatch something as a souvenir. They find out the Earth is too far away from Pluke to travel there safely; Uef and Bi get very upset and try to steal the last match from Uncle Vova, but Gedevan gives them away to the local ecilopp. Uef and Bi are arrested and put in the local prison. The ecilopp seizes the match on the grounds that it's smuggled. At night, Uncle Vova and Gedevan are found by the wanderer whose translocation machine sent them to Pluke, and he offers them to immediately relocate them to Earth. However, Uncle Vova refuses to return, as he cannot leave Uef and Bi in trouble. Uncle Vova suddenly finds a gratitsappa in Gedevan's belongings, which he managed to steal from the planetarium as a souvenir, not knowing what this is.

To bust Uef and Bi out of prison, Uncle Vova and Gedevan earn money for ransom by performing songs and following humiliating rules. During one performance, they meet the very smugglers who stole a box of matches from Uncle Vova, with their leader now wearing magenta pants as a high social status accessory. Then all the money Uncle Vova and Gedevan earned is taken from them by a well-timed ecilopp. This proves to be the last straw for the heroes; they disarm the ecilopp, barge to Mr. P-Zh's house, and discover that cunning and greedy government officials themselves are, in fact, very meek and sensitive to direct violence. The heroes take the ecilopp hostage, reach the prison and free Uef and Bi.

Now having a gravitsappa, the buskers take Uncle Vova and Gedevan to another planet, which appears to be the dead, war-ravaged Patsak planet Hanood. There, they explain the reason why they refused to take Uncle Vova and Gedevan to the Earth: on the way between Pluke and Earth, there is the planet Alpha, whose inhabitants despise the inhabitants of the Kin-dza-dza galaxy for their greed and turn them into cacti. Uef and Bi offer the Earthlngs to stay with them instead of returning to Earth so that, having saved up money, they can buy the whole planet and start a tyrannical rule. Both Uncle Vova and Gedevan, realizing that they will never return to Earth, prefer such a life to death by suffocation in the oxygen-poor Hanudian atmosphere. Impressed by this decision, Uef and Bi decide on a risky plan: to brake their pepelats in Alpha's orbit and catapult the Earthlings to its surface, and then to return back to the Kin-dza-dza galaxy. However, the pepelats' brakes fail at the very last moment, and Uef and Bi are captured by the inhabitants of Alpha. Local leader Abradox (Georgiy Daneliya) offers the heroes a choice: either return them to Earth, or go back to the past, when they could decide their own fate. Uncle Vova chooses the latter one. Once back on Pluke, before meeting the owner of the translocation machine, Uncle Vova and Gedevan once again make their way to the prison and free Uef and Bi a second time. The Earthlings offer Plukanians to fly to Earth instead, but they refuse, stating that the Earthlings have no purpose in life without social segregation. Having received a gravitsappa, they bid their farewell to the Earthlngs.

Finally, Uncle Vova and Gedevan encounter the man from the film's beginning, but he disappears, making it uncertain if he took them with him. The film then jumps back to the very beginning. As Uncle Vova heads outside, however, there is no man at the city center; furthermore, when he runs into Gedevan there, they do not recognize each other. Suddenly, a passing tractor with a flashing, orange light reminds them of the ecilopps, and they both reflexively squat and say «Ku!», just as it is required on Pluke. They immediately recognize each other. Uncle Vova, looking at the sky, hears the sound of a song performed by the Uef and Bi.

Cast (in order of appearance)

Plukanian language

• Koo – all words, with the following exceptions:
  • Kyu (pronounced "kyew") – any profanity
  • Ketseh (pronounced "keh-tseh", emphasis on the second syllable) – matches
  • Chatl – a currency unit
  • Tsak – a small bell worn on the nose to indicate the low social status of the wearer
  • Tentura and Antitentura – two opposite parts of the Universe. Some planets and galaxies exist in Tentura (including Earth, number 013 in the Tentura, seventh in Spiral) and some in Antitentura
  • Pepelats – an interplanetary spacecraft (from the Georgian პეპელა p’ep’ela, "butterfly")
  • Tsapa – a component for different machines. A "big tsapa" is a very important component for the pepelats. A *"small tsapa" is a component for the gravitsapa; without the small tsapa, a gravitsapa will not work. Tsapa is similar to a very rusty screwnut
  • Gravitsapa – a component for the pepelats which allows intergalactic travel (from "gravity" + "tsapa")
  • Tranklucator – a weapon
  • Visator – compact device, detects difference between Patsaks and Chatlanians
  • Kappa – a button or lever
  • Luts – the fuel used by the pepelats, it is made of water
  • Chatlanin – being with a high social status (detected as "orange" on a Visator)
  • Patsak – being with a low social status (detected as "green" on a Visator)
  • Ecilop – a policeman ("police" spoken backwards)
  • Etsikh – a box for prisoners; also the imprisonment in such box (as a penalty); also "the Etsikh" is a jail with many such boxes ("Etsikh" is from the Georgian ციხე tsikhe, "prison"). "Etsikh with nails" is a hard punishment.

Release

The movie has been released on DVD in Russia, but has gained virtually no notice elsewhere, with the exception of Japan.^{[citation needed]} This is largely due to the fact that there was no official release of the movie with English subtitles for a long time. While the movie was in the making, a censorship threat emerged, due to the use of the word "Ku" (Koo) which sounded like the initials "K.U.", referring to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR at the time, K.U. Chernenko. Chernenko had assumed the Party leadership in 1984, but died in 1985, which resolved the issue.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council) released a version with the original Russian sound and additional English and French dubbing. It has also subtitles in English and other languages.[1]

In 2013, a digitally-restored Blu-ray version was released.[2]

The film is available with English subtitles on YouTube, via Mosfilm.[3]

Critical response

Thirty years after its original release, Little White Lies magazine described Kin-dza-dza! as "Mad Max meets Monty Python by way of Tarkovsky" and said it had remained relevant to audiences.[4] Russia Beyond agreed that the film was still well-loved by Russians in 2016.[5]

On 1 December 2016, Google celebrated the 30th anniversary of Kin-Dza-Dza! with a Google Doodle.[6]

Animated remake

In 2013, Daneliya released an animated remake of the film, named Ku! Kin-dza-dza! (Ку! Кин-дза-дза).[7] The animated version was based on the plot of the original film, but was targeted more towards children and international audiences. It had a budget of 140 million rubles.[8] Ku! Kin-dza-dza! won Best Animated Feature Film in the 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.[9] The animated remake is mainly a traditionally-animated (drawn-by-hand) feature film, with some computer animation.

References

Further reading

• Smith, Michael Thomas (25 July 2017). "'Kyu': A Semantic Analysis of 'Kin Dza Dza!'". Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 34 (8): 765–774. doi:10.1080/10509208.2017.1347863. S2CID 148674192.

External links

• Kin-dza-dza! at AllMovie
• Kin-dza-dza! at IMDb
• Kin-dza-dza! at Rotten Tomatoes

На других языках

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- [en] Kin-dza-dza!

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[ru] Кин-дза-дза!

«Кин-дза-дза́!» — советская двухсерийная трагикомедия в жанре фантастической антиутопии, снятая режиссёром Георгием Данелией на «Мосфильме» в 1986 году. Лента оказала влияние на русскоязычную культуру — вымышленные слова из фильма вошли в разговорный язык, некоторые фразы персонажей стали устойчивыми выражениями.

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