''Heart of a Dog'' (russian: Собачье сердце, translit. ''Sobachye serdtse'') is a black-and-white 1988

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

directed by

Vladimir Bortko Vladimir Vladimirovich Bortko (russian: Владимир Владимирович Бортко; born 7 May 1946) is a Russian film director, screenwriter, producer and politician. He was a member of the State Duma between 2011 and 2021, and was aw ...

. It is based on

Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the fir ...

's novel ''

Heart of a Dog ''Heart of a Dog'' (russian: links=no, italic=yes, Собачье сердце, Sobachye serdtse) is a novella by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. A biting satire of Bolshevism, it was written in 1925 at the height of the NEP period, when commu ...

''. Premiering show of the film aired on 20 November 1988 at 18:45 on the Central Television

Programme One Programme One was a television channel produced and transmitted by Soviet Central Television, the television broadcasting organization of the USSR. It had a mixed schedule of news and entertainment, with the emphasis on events in the USSR, and als ...

. The film consisted of two episodes. The novel written in 1925 was censored in the Soviet Union, but at times of

perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...

shown on the Soviet television.

Plot

The film is set in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

not long after the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

where a complaining

stray dog A free-ranging dog is a dog that is not confined to a yard or house. Free-ranging dogs include street dogs, village dogs, stray dogs, feral dogs, etc., and may be owned or unowned. The global dog population is estimated to be 900 million, of w ...

looks for food and shelter. A well-off, well-known

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

Philipp Philippovich Preobrazhensky happens to need a dog and with a piece of sausage lures the animal to his big house with annexed practice. The dog is named Sharik and well taken care of by the doctor's maids, but still wonders why he is there. He finds out too late he is needed as a test animal: the doctor implants a

pituitary gland In vertebrate anatomy, the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland, about the size of a chickpea and weighing, on average, in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain. The ...

and

testicles A testicle or testis (plural testes) is the male reproductive gland or gonad in all bilaterians, including humans. It is homologous to the female ovary. The functions of the testes are to produce both sperm and androgens, primarily testostero ...

of a recently deceased

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomin ...

and petty criminal Klim Chugunkin into Sharik. Sharik proceeds to become more and more human during the next days. After his transition to human is complete, it turns out that he inherited all the negative traits of the donor – bad manners, aggressiveness, use of profanity, heavy drinking – but still hates cats. He picks for himself the absurd name Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, starts working at the "Moscow Cleansing Sub-Department responsible for eliminating vagrant

quadruped Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion where four limbs are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four limbs is said to be a quadruped (from Latin ''quattuor' ...

s (cats, etc.)" and associating with revolutionaries, who plot to drive Preobrazhensky out of his big apartment. Eventually he turns the life in the professor's house into a nightmare by stealing money, breaking his furniture, flooding the apartment during a cat chase and blackmailing into marriage a girl he met at the cinema. Preobrazhensky and his friend and assistant, Dr. Bormental, see all their efforts to reform Sharikov fail. After a series of increasingly implacable conflicts, Preobrazhensky learns that Sharikov had attempted to denounce him to the Soviet secret police. He then demands that Sharikov immediately leaves the apartment for good. Sharikov angrily refuses and draws a revolver. An infuriated Bormental attacks Sharikov and, after a short but violent fight, subdues him. The professor then chooses to reverse the procedure. Sharikov turns back into a dog. As Sharik, he does remember little about what has happened to him, but isn't much concerned about that. To his content he is left to live in the professor's apartment.

Cast

Yevgeny Yevstigneyev Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevstigneyev (russian: Евгений Александрович Евстигнеев; 9 October 1926 — 4 March 1992) was a prominent Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, theatre pedagogue, one of the founders of the ...

as ''Professor Philipp Philippovich Preobrazhensky'' *

Boris Plotnikov Boris Grigoryevich Plotnikov (russian: Борис Григорьевич Плотников; 2 April 1949 – 2 December 2020)

as ''Dr. Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental, the professor's assistant'' *

Vladimir Tolokonnikov Vladimir Alexeyevich Tolokonnikov (russian: Влади́мир Алексе́евич Толоко́нников; June 25, 1943 – July 15, 2017) was a Soviet, Russian and Kazakh film and theater actor, Honored Artist of the Kazakh SSR. He was awa ...

as ''Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov'' *

Nina Ruslanova Nina Ivanovna Ruslanova (russian: Нина Ивановна Русланова; 5 December 1945 – 21 November 2021) was a Soviet and Russian theater and film actress. She was honored as a People's Artist of Russia (1998).Roman Kartsev Roman Andreyevich Kartsev (russian: link=no, Рома́н Андре́евич Ка́рцев, born Roman Antshelevich Katz (russian: link=no, Рома́н А́ншелевич Кац); 20 May 1939 – 2 October 2018) was a Russian entertainer of ...

as ''Schwonder, a chairman of the building committee'' * Olga Melikhova as ''Zinaida Prokofievna Bunina, a housemaid and the professor's helper during surgeries'' ** (

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-Diegetic#Film sound and music, diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, th ...

for Melikhova performed by Svetlana Smirnova) *Carray as ''Sharik, a stray dog'' *

Anzhelika Nevolina Angelika is a variant of Angelica, derived from Latin ''angelicus'' meaning "angelic", ultimately related to Greek ''ἄγγελος'' (''ángelos'') – "messenger". The poets Boiardo and Ariosto used this name in their 'Orlando' poems (1495 and ...

as ''Vasnetsova, a typist out of the office'' * Vladimir Fyodorov as ''being (Sharik at transitional stage)''

Details

* This screen version of M. Bulgakov's novel is famous for its attention to the original text: practically nothing was deleted for adaptation. However, there are some differences between the novel and the film (in the novel Bormental didn't meet the typist in the cinema and Pyotr Alexandrovich – an important official cured by Preobrazhensky – didn't look like

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

as it was shown in the film). The episode in which Bormental presents Sharikov who plays balalaika didn't exist in the novel. However, the phrases of Bormental were taken from the diary of Bormental which was in the original novel. * Some scenes (spiritualism, circus) were taken from early Bulgakov's short stories, not from the novel. * One of the scientists who witness the transformation of Sharik into a human is called Professor Persikov. He is the protagonist of another of Bulgakov's science-fiction novel, '' The Fatal Eggs''.

Awards and honors

Prix Italia The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with the ...

(1989) *

Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR The Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR was an annual State Prize established by the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR in 1965. Three Vasilyev Brothers prizes were awarded annually from 1966 until 1990 for cinematographic works of all kinds ( ...

(1990)Бортко, Владимир Владимирович
tass.ru

References

External links