In this fractured fairy tale for adults, two thieves--Vaska and Vanya--steal the czar's treasure from the Bank of St. Petersburg by opening the roof with a sardine can opener taken from the nest of a griffin. And this is only the start of their misadventures: Vaska is temporarily beheaded, the Red Guards are hot on their heels, and copious amounts of Vodka are consumed by all. Set in Soviet Russia, Vaska Easoff was derived from a mythical story passed among prisoners of the Communist labor camps. It imaginatively satirizes life under Communist rule, while harking back to classic Russian folktales. "Visually dazzling" (Variety). In Russian and Hungarian with English subtitles.

Peter Gothar---Hungary---1996---86 mins.