Naum Trakhtenberg

Fitil is a popular Soviet/Russian television satirical/comedy short film series which ran for about 500 episodes. Some of the episodes were aimed at children, and were called Фитилёк, Fitilyok, Little Fuse. Each issue contained from the few short segments: documentary, fictional and animated ones. Directed by various artists, including Leonid Gaidai who presented his famous trio of Nikulin, Vitsin and Morgunov into the cast. It was called in USSR as "the anecdotes from the Soviet government".

The court undeservedly passes a harsh sentence on a young worker Volodya Kharlamov. His girlfriend Valya, whom Volodya once saved from hooligans, and the people's assessor Mitrokhin actively insist on a review of the case. In the end, they are joined by others who knew Kharlamov well, but who were significantly hindered by simple human qualities - fear, selfishness and indifference.

After receiving a slap in the face, Officer Silvio challenges the offending Count to a duel. However, urgent circumstances force the officer to leave, leaving the right to shoot. After many years, on the eve of the Count’s wedding, Silvio returns to demand retaliation.

An interesting voyage through the Soviet television and film industry.

His right hand having been wounded during the war, concert pianist Andrei Balashov is unable to perform his art. As a result, the young man feels so depressed that he considers his life wasted. One day, he decides to leave the capital and flee from the woman he loves, Natasha, a rising singing star. Andrei takes refuge in Siberia, his native land. Once there, he gets a job in a sawmill, where he entertains his fellow-workers playing the accordion during leisure hours. Some time later, Natasha and her company are expected in America where they are to do a tour. But an airplane breakdown forces the pilot to land next to the village in which Andrei lives and works...

A funny story about a middle-aged man who ran into a store, bought two pies and ate them while standing in line. When it was his turn to pay, he got into trouble - no one had seen how many pies he had eaten. The head of the section invites the customer to go to the head of the department, and the latter, in turn, addresses the store director. The director suggests that the customer wait until the store closes, when the goods will be removed.

On falling in love with Sergey, Natasha gives up studies at a pedagogical institute and accompanies him to a construction site. In a course of time she realizes that her husband is interested only in his work. She leaves him, graduates from the institute and works as a teacher. But Sergey is fired for authoritative style of work and Natasha realizes that she must be near to him in his hour of need.

A biographical film about the fate of the great Russian mechanic and creator of aerodynamics Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky.

Soviet filmmaker Yuri Raisman once more combines political dogma with solid entertainment values in Dream of a Cossack (aka Cavalier of the Golden Star). The title character, played by future director Sergei Bondarchuk (and billed for obscure reasons as Semyon Bondarchuk), is an ex-soldier who returns home to the Kuban region, there to take up life as a farmer. Instead, he galvanizes the local citizenry into participating in a massive construction project, which will result in a new power station and canal. Thus does Raisman offer an prime example of Russian collectivism while making it seem as though it had sprung from individual initiative. Dream of a Cossack is based on a popular novel by S. Babayefsky.

Aneta, the serf actress of Knyaz Skalinsky, amazes with her beauty and talented performance of Shchepin. After the performance, a frank conversation ensues between them. The interlocutor learns that Skalinsky, pursuing the actress for a long time, gave her lover — a young actor of the troupe — to the soldiers for twenty-five years. After much deliberation, Shchepin decides to help the girl, but is too late...