''The Wild East'' (russian: Дикий восток, Dikiy vostok, Dikij vostok) is a Russian-language film created in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union released in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

. It was written and directed by

Rashid Nugmanov Rashid Nugmanov (also written Rachid Nougmanov; russian: Рашид Мусаевич Нугманов; born March 19, 1954, in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan) is a Kazakhs, Kazakh film director, dissent, dissident, political activistDruker, Jeremy, (2003-11- ...

and was inspired by ''

The Magnificent Seven ''The Magnificent Seven'' is a 1960 American Western film directed by John Sturges. The screenplay by William Roberts is a remake – in an Old West–style – of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese film '' Seven Samurai'' (itself initially relea ...

'', an American remake of

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

's film ''

Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The story takes place in 1586 during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. It follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who hire seven ...

''.

Plot

In this version of the famous plot a group of

midget Midget (from ''midge'', a tiny biting insect) is a term for a person of unusually short stature that is considered by some to be pejorative due to its etymology. While not a medical term like "dwarfism", a medical condition with a number of ca ...

circus runaways decide to form their own community to flee the chaos out come under attack from motorcycling ruffians. In response, of course, midgets hire seven tough people to defend them. One of them is a woman driving a car, another a stunt man, another a Mongolian eagle hunter, and a

beatnik Beatniks were members of a social movement in the 1950s that subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle. History In 1948, Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation", generalizing from his social circle to characterize the undergr ...

. The bandits have an easy victory and allow the hired fighters to leave with their weapons. However, they come back, teach the midgets to fight and entrap the bandits. In a final fight, the chief of the fighters confronts the main bandit at their lair and wins. The bandits return the stolen car to the fighter. The midgets exchange the car for a tractor following the final wish of the driver. The film was shown in many international film festivals as both a fun movie and an oddity. It was billed as "The Last Soviet Film."

Cast

* Aleksandr Aksyonov, Beatnik, a drunkard. * Farkhad Amankulov, Mongol, a hunter. * Konstantin Fyodorov, Strannik. * Zhanna Isina, Marilyn, a car driver. * Viacheslav Knizel, Skull, bandit chief. * Konstantin Shamshurin, Godfather * Gennadi Shatunov, Iona, a midget unhappy with his sort. * Pavel Shpakovsky, Old Man, midget chief. * Aleksandr Sporykhin, Ivan Taiga, a former soldier.

Quotes

A notable quote is when the midget patriarch says "remember there is no sex in our country." The phrase is a hint to the catch phrase " There is no sex in the USSR" from a famous episode from the ''

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 ...

''-era

TV show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

'' US-Soviet Space Bridge''.

References

External links

*
''The Wild East''
in the ''New York Times'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wild East, The 1993 films 1993 Western (genre) films Ostern films Seven Samurai Outlaw biker films 1993 action comedy films 1990s Russian-language films Russian action comedy films Russian black comedy films Kazakhstani comedy films Russian post-apocalyptic films 1990s Japanese films 1993 action films