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(Picture found on Wikipedia)
I first heard about The Shurik Adventures through my Russian friend Katya while she was an exchange student at my high school. Most of the time we watched American movies, especially musicals, but sometimes she showed me something she had grown up watching back home, like the fairy tale musical Mother. Katya had brought along a copy of The Shurik Adventures in case she had someone to show it to, so we sat on her bed and played it on her computer. Since her copy did not have subtitles, Katya translated the whole thing for me. Before we started, she briefly explained that everyone in Russia knows these films and all their jokes.
There are three chapters, or adventures, and they all center around a young man named Shurik. (Shurik is short for Alexander and, since Sasha is another nickname for Alexander, this three part film is sometimes also called The Sasha Adventures.) The full title is Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures, and it was filmed while Russia was still known as the Soviet Union back in the 1960's. As such, there are aspects to the film that reflect the culture of the time, but I will talk about that more later. To best explain the purpose of the short films, I would say that the blond, Russian version of Rick Moranis finds himself in hairy situations full of jokes, luck, and physical comedy.
(Picture of American actor Rick Moranis found on IMDB)
1. "Workmate"
The first chapter is called "Workmate." We see our kindhearted hero Shurik trying to go about his day and ride the bus. He gets mixed up with a big bully, and the both of them are written up for public misconduct, which means they have to spend a day doing labor as a form of community service. As it happens, the two end up being workmates who are supposed to stick together during their tasks and help each other. Shurik tries to get on with his work, but the bully blames Shurik for being stuck in punishment and wants to get back at the younger man. He spends the whole day trying to find ways to mess Shurik up or hurt him, and finally Shurik reaches the end of his rope and fights back. He outsmarts the bully continuously until the bully begins to devolve as he becomes obsessed with defeating Shurik. He covers himself in black stuff, replaces his clothes with a grass skirt, and chases after Shurik like a madman. (As Katya explained when we first watched the film without subtitles, this is meant to be funny because the man is so angry that he reverts to primitive measures to try and defeat Shurik over what should be a silly matter. That black face makeup here is intentional, as he is meant to look like an African bushman while Shurik remains civilized, or at least smart enough to beat his enemy. More on this later.) Even after all this, however, Shurik comes out victorious. When he and the bully have to come back for another day of work, Shurik has a new found confidence while the bully promptly faints at the thought of being Shurik's workmate again.
Just when Shurik thinks he might be free to go about his work, his terrible workmate appears again, once more ready to fight.
(Picture found on Google Images)
2. "Deja Vu"
The second chapter is my personal favorite. In it, the entire university is studying for a single difficult test that somehow only a few people have the right notes and books for. Memorization is the key to passing all Russian exams and the test is coming up fast, but Shurik cannot find anyone with the right notes. He roams around campus looking, where there are lots of students using binoculars to see into other people's notebooks, huge crowds gathered around a single book, and writing on the walls where students have studied. Interspersed throughout the episode are clips here and there of people taking their tests, which involve drawing a random question from the pile, then answering it, usually with bad results. Finally Shurik spots the right notes in the hands of a girl who is waiting for the bus with her friend. The girl is Lida, and Shurik follows her and her friend onto the bus without realizing it. When Lida's friend falls asleep on the bus, Lida does not notice and so believes that the person with her is her friend and not Shurik. (Presumably this friend misses the test entirely, but we never find out.) The two of them walk from the bus stop all the way to Lida's apartment, flawlessly avoiding open manholes and vicious dogs, and they continue to study while eating, turning on the fan, and stripping down to their underwear to cool off. When the time comes to head back for the test, the process repeats. A bit later, we see Shurik after passing the test, and he happens to see the lovely Lida skipping out of her own successful test. A mutual friend introduces them, and they proceed to walk together. Shurik is very sweet but clumsy, and he gets stuck in every situation he previously made it through without realizing it, falling into the open manhole and struggling to pass the vicious dog. He ends up back in Lida's apartment, where he discovers that he has a strange feeling that he has been there before despite never having met Lida. The smell of the flowers, the chime of the clock, and other things are clues. Then he finds his own comb on the floor, and knows about a pitcher of water behind a curtain. Lida says that he must be psychic, and so writes down a secret request on a piece of paper for him to guess, then closes her eyes. Although she wrote something akin to "hand me something," Shurik is clearly not psychic and so guesses incorrectly by giving her a kiss. He asks if he was right, and Lida says that he was and tears up what she wrote. The chapter ends at sunset with the promise of a romance.
(Picture found on Google Images)
3. "Operation Y"
In the third chapter, Shurik is helping keep an eye of the large shop that belongs to his kindly neighbors. He bundles up on a winter night and heads to the store. Little does he know that some men have broken into the store and see him as a threat. However, every time they try to get away with something or go after Shurik, he accidentally stops them. This chapter is very reminiscent of something like Home Alone if the main character did not realize what was happening. Although Shurik spooks himself many times, he never actually realizes there are burglars inside with him. In the end, the burglars fail due to our protangonist's serendipitous actions, and Shurik goes home to report that everything is in ship shape at the shop.
(Picture found on Google Images)
Later on, Katya showed me the sequel to The Shurik Adventures, which has different names such as Kidnapping—Caucasian Style and Shurik's New Adventures. Since the sequel is a full length movie, I will not go into so many details, but basically Shurik has ended up riding a donkey out in the country and comes to stay in a village where the beautiful Nina lives. This film is very humorous just like "Operation Y," and Shurik is the unlikely hero once again when a group of men decide to steal Nina for a bride.
To explain the style of humor of Shurik's New Adventures, one only has to watch the opening scene. Shurik's donkey suddenly stops from exhaustion at the same time that another man's car breaks down. They are both working hard to get their vehicle moving when suddenly the lovely, angelic Nina comes walking down the road without a care in the world. As she passes by, both the donkey and the car start back up and begin to follow her. Shurik and the other man hop on the chance, and, after chasing their vehicles, are taken to the village that is the setting for the rest of the film. Shurik is the hero, and the man who was driving the car is the villain. He and the other bad guys have a bit of a Three Stooges act going for them, so their attempts to kidnap Nina are bumbling to the point that a normal guy like Shurik is able to thwart their efforts in the end.
Unfortunately, like with the short film "Workmate" from The Shurik Adventures, the idea behind the theme of the film is quite racist. While not so immediately blatant as "Workmate" in terms of visuals, the whole idea of the movie is that some men have decided to steal a woman the way perhaps an Arabian man would. Hence the name Kidnapping—Caucasian Style, as all of the characters are Caucasian, fair-skinned Russians. While the time period these films were made in does factor in to why these choices were made (1960's Soviet Union), it is important to note that these films are still very popular and extremely well known and quoted by all generations today. They are almost the Russian version of Monty Python's Flying Circus, or possibly even more famous across the nation. To compound the matter further, many parts of Russia still lack diversity today, and I have met several Russian people who have probably never met a person of color in all their lives, so these sorts of racist references and jokes do not strike them as offensive. Katya told me in high school that she had hesitated to get her ears pierced because her dark hair and slightly dark skin might make her look like a gypsy if she added jewelry into the mix. Lots of stereotypes and assumptions surround groups of people who are not very visible within Russian borders, which is truly sad because so much of the culture is based on family values and "your friend is my friend, and therefore family."
While I was there, I did my best not to just go along with jokes about stereotypes, but as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed person myself I found it rather difficult to feel like I could make any sort of point. Therefore, I do not have much of an answer to the problem of continued racism in Russia. All I can say is that films like this should not be ignored, just as racist anti-Nazi/Japan/Italy Disney cartoons should not be forgotten. Instead, I think they can be enjoyed for the humor within them without shame so long as society continues to move in the right direction towards acceptance of all people as people, not savages. Those of us with exposure will just have to keep teaching those without what we know. In many cases we will make only a little bit of a difference, or even none at all, but we just need to keep reminding others that black people are not all bushmen, bushmen are not bushmen because they are black, and so on. Truth needs to be known alongside the jokes, so that eventually the offensive jokes are not made any more and everyone can laugh together.
(Picture found on Google Images)
