Viktor Kryuchkov

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 film comprises three cinematic novellas: (1) “And They Arrived at the Peasant’s Hut… or the Adventures of Writer Senya in Search of the Hidden Word,” in which writer Senya draws inspiration for his rural novels from his housekeeper Yermolayevna’s tales; (2) “The Song, or How the Great Louarsab Organized a Choir,” where a city visitor attempts to form a choir of centenarian elders in a Georgian mountain village; (3) “What Is Our Life?! or What Is Our Life?!”—during a musical reenactment of pre-Revolutionary France, a drunken actor’s tardiness forces King Louis XIV (also the theater committee chairman) and the cast to improvise the play’s ending.

The 1975 film by Georgi Daneliya "Afonya" was an unexpected commercial hit in USSR. The main character "Afonya" Borshev is a plumber, who spends his life partying with "buddies", many of whom he doesn't even remember after nights of heavy drinking. His wife leaves him, his boss places him on probation, his whole life is falling apart, but he doesn't realize it. Afonya met Katya at a dance club, yet didn't pay her much attention. But she is the one, who can save him... In this movie Daneliya achieves a perfect balance of satire and drama. Quotes from the movie gained a cult status in USSR.

The movie intertwines the plot lines of the stories "In the Bathhouse", "Tears Invisible to the World", "A Conversation between a Man and a Dog" and others. By the will of the film's creators, the viewer gets to the rehearsals of an unusual choir and gets acquainted with the stories of the singers - diverse, but invariably amusing.

Aboard a steamship, a priest tells his fellow passengers his life story, which he admits is the story of a great sinner.

The action takes place at the end of the 19th century in the Russian North, near the White Sea. Orphan Matvey is still 12 years old. His abilities are noticed by the master shipbuilder Quake and takes to his artel. While studying carpentry, Matvey saves money, dreaming of being a pilot on his own ship...

Sergey arrives in the town with his son to visit the old forest ranger. They share a long-standing acquaintance. A romance begins between the ranger’s daughter, Ksenia, and Sergey, but suddenly, Ksenia's ex-husband shows up...

The young lumberjack foreman Leshka Ignatov bitterly sees for himself that the huge stocks of forest, extracted by hard work, rot on the side of the road due to simple mismanagement. Raising the alarm at the timber industry farm and not receiving support in the area, he flies to Moscow ...

The parents of thirteen-year-old Andrei went on a six-month business trip abroad and rented an apartment to Nina Korableva, a kindergarten music teacher, to look after the boy. They became friends very quickly.