''Poor Relatives'' (russian: Бедные родственники, Bednye Rodstvenniki), also released as ''Roots'', is a 2005 Russian

black comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the old ...

directed by

Pavel Lungin Pavel Semyonovich Lungin (russian: Па́вел Семёнович Лунги́н; born 12 July 1949) is a Russian film director. He is sometimes credited as Pavel Loungine (as in the American release of '' Tycoon''). Lungin was awarded the disti ...

. The film tells the story of a Russian grifter who defrauds foreigners by introducing them to ordinary people hired to pose as long lost relatives.

Plot

Young con artist with a rather nice personality, Edik (

Konstantin Khabensky Konstantin Yurievich Khabensky, PAR (russian: link=no, Константин Юрьевич Хабенский; born 11 January 1972) is a Russian actor of stage and film, director and philanthropist. From 1997 he was part of the Saint Petersbur ...

) gets in trouble gathering long lost foreign relatives together. Wealthy and middle-class émigrés who have made it in the new lands (the Americas, Israel) return to the homeland, to the roots from which they were severed. The implicit motivation for their return is the search for spiritual nourishment, and so the émigrés sacrifice the material comforts of their villas and Western civilization to journey to their ancestral past, the timeless village of Golotvin. They believe that here they will be able to complete themselves by reconnecting with their heritage. All for the nominal fee of Edik, a free agent and a small-time crook who orchestrates an elaborate crime with the intention of earning a pile of money by tricking a group of pilgrims into thinking that a small village is their homeland and its inhabitants are their long lost relatives. The levels of deception multiply quickly...

Cast

as Edik *

Leonid Kanevsky Leonid Semyonoviсh Kanevski ( uk, Леонід Семенович Каневський, russian: Леони́д Семёнович Кане́вский; 2 May 1939, Kiev, USSR) is a Soviet, Russian and Israeli actor. He became popular with the S ...

as Baroukh *

Sergei Garmash Sergei Leonidovich Garmash (russian: Серге́й Леони́дович Гарма́ш; born 1 September 1958) is a Soviet and Russian film and stage actor. He is a People's Artist of Russia. In 2013 he was a member of the jury at the 35th Mosc ...

as Yacha * Natalya Kolyakanova as Regina * Esther Gorintin as Esther *

Otto Tausig Otto Tausig (13 February 1922 – 10 October 2011) was an Austrian writer, director and actor. Although he usually appeared in German language films, he also played in English language films such as '' Love Comes Lately'', and in French language fi ...

as Samuel * Miglen Mirtchev as Andrew *

Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet (born 4 December 1987) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter. Career Theatre Between 1998 and 2002, he was a member of the chorus at the Opéra National de Paris. Film Leprince-Ringuet has been nominated ...

as Marc-Yves

Awards

Kinotavr Kinotavr (russian: Кинотавр), also known as the Sochi Open Russian Film Festival is an open film festival held in the resort city of Sochi, Russia annually in June since 1991, until it was cancelled in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasi ...
(2005)Открытый Российский кинофестиваль «Кинотавр»: Призеры 1991-2005 гг.
Kinotavr.ru

*Main Prize *Best Male Actor (Konstantin Khabensky) *Best Script (Gennady Ostrovsky) *Prize of the Governor of Kuban

White Elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...
(2005)

*Best Male Supporting Actor (Sergei Garmash)

Golden Aries (2006)

*Best Male Actor in the Popular Vote (Konstantin Khabensky)

References

External links

* 2005 films 2000s Russian-language films 2005 black comedy films Films directed by Pavel Lungin French black comedy films Russian black comedy films Films about con artists 2005 comedy films 2000s French films {{Russia-film-stub