Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (1967) on Netflix
Shurik, an ethnography student, travels to the Caucasus and meets Nina, a Young Communist League athlete. Saakhov, the richest man around, wants her, and her uncle strikes a deal with him.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb8.2/1015,339 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
Shurik, a student of ethnography, comes to the Caucasus to collect its myths, legends and toasts. On a mountain road he meets the truck driver Edik, whose truck will not start, and Nina, an athlete and Young Communist League member whose uncle works as chauffeur to Comrade Saakhov, the man who runs the regional agricultural cooperative and is the richest around. Saakhov wants Nina for himself and offers her uncle twenty head of sheep and a Finnish refrigerator for her; since she would never agree, the two plan a kidnapping. For the job they hire three men who struggle to get Nina alone, and Shurik, who is in love with her, is told that bride stealing is an old local custom.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (1967)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Soviet censors at Goskino moved to block the film's release, but Leonid Brezhnev, less than a year into his role as General Secretary of the Communist Party, saw it and liked Leonid Gaidai's work; the censors reversed their decision and the film was released.
- Soviet censors rewrote a line yelled by the Coward: the original "Long live the Soviet justice system, the most humane justice system in the world!" became "Long live our justice system...", because the first version was considered too obviously a mockery of Soviet justice.
- Yuri Nikulin and Yevgeny Morgunov at first refused to appear in the film, saying the screenplay was too unrealistic; director Leonid Gaidai won them back by agreeing to make adjustments to the screenplay.
- Vladimir Etush, cast as the wealthy official Saakhov, disagreed with director Leonid Gaidai over the part: Etush wanted Saakhov played as an accomplished, serious man, while Gaidai pushed for an over-the-top performance.
