''The Little Mermaid'' (russian: Русалочка, Rusalochka) is a 1976 Soviet

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction f ...

directed by Vladimir Bychkov based on the 1837 fairy tale of "

The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" ( da, Den lille havfrue) is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a h ...

" by

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

Plot

The story is set in the 13th century. The little mermaid sees a prince on a ship from a distance and falls in love with him. Other mermaids mesmerize the sailors into crashing their ship on to the rocks. The mermaid saves the prince from drowning and brings him to shore. A local princess notices the unconscious prince and rescues him. The mermaid wants to marry the prince and swims towards palace where the princess lives. One of the fishermen spots her and they all throw rocks at her. She hides for safety in the canal within the palace. A traveling handyman befriends her. He enlists the help of a local witch who demands her hair and sweet voice for transforming her tail into legs. The witch takes the mermaid's hair but does not take her voice. The traveling handyman contacts the prince who is recovering at the palace and tells him about the mermaid. By then, the mermaid is about to be burned at the stake by the people who had caught her. The prince saves the mermaid and the princess takes the mermaid in her care. The prince fights off a local challenger in a joust to marry the princess. But, the challenger stabs the prince in the back when he was not looking. Everyone abandons the prince now that he is dead. The mermaid begs the witch to revive the prince. The witch does so but warns her that if the prince does not marry the mermaid, she will die. The prince comes back alive but does not marry the mermaid. He marries the princess and the mermaid is destined to die on the same day. The traveling handyman challenges the prince to a fight and is killed. His sacrifice spares the mermaid from death and her soul becomes eternal.

Cast

*Viktoriya Novikova as the Little Mermaid *

Valentin Nikulin Valentin Yuryevich Nikulin (russian: Валенти́н Ю́рьевич Нику́лин; 7 July 1932, Moscow — 6 August 2005, Moscow) was a Soviet, Russian and Israeli theater and film actor. Nikulin was born in the family of the playwright ...

as Sulpitius and

*Yuri Senkevich as the Prince (Antoine) *

Galina Volchek Galina Borisovna (Berovna) Volchek (russian: Гали́на Бори́совна Во́лчек; 19 December 1933 – 26 December 2019) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actress, theater director and pedagogue. People's Artist of the USSR ...

as the

Witch Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...

*Galina Artyomova as the Princess * Stefan Iliev * Svetlana Mojseyenko as Zhaklin * Margarita Chudinova as Leonella *

Mikhail Pugovkin Mikhail Ivanovich Pugovkin (russian: Михаи́л Ива́нович Пу́говкин; July 13, 1923, Rameshki, Chukhlomsky District of Kostroma Oblast — July 25, 2008, Moscow) (aged 85) was a Soviet and Russian comic actor named a People' ...

External links

* Gorky Film Studio films 1970s Russian-language films Russian children's fantasy films Films based on The Little Mermaid Films shot in Bulgaria 1970s Bulgarian-language films Films shot in Georgia (country) Films shot in Ukraine Soviet fantasy films Soviet romance films Russian romantic drama films Soviet multilingual films Films about witchcraft Bulgarian multilingual films 1976 multilingual films Bulgarian speculative fiction films Soviet children's films {{fantasy-film-stub Films about mermaids Films about shapeshifting