Russian Fairy Tales in Cinema: Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair

Esteemed Readers, The Soviet cinema has been a golden epoch of the Russian culture, so, no matter the lack of the true folklore identity, it would be unfair to omit the tales – movies made in that period. All of them had a particular trait: great pieces of satire were disguised at the background, so I would not call them stories only for children.

Let’s begin with “Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair”, a fantasy film based on Vodyan’oj‘s tale. The story so far: “Once upon a time there was a Tsar Yerem’ei. He went to the annual campaign to make an inventory of his kingdom-state. He leaned over once to the well to drink, but immediately grabbed by the underwater tsar Ch’udo – ‘Yudo. Demanded a ransom for the release – such as Yerem’ei did not know or wondered what it is in his kingdom. The Tsar agreed, not knowing that in his absence,the Tsaritsa gave birth to a son.

The Tsar got sad and frightened, however a solution was found: the same time a boy was born in a fisherman’s family, so a cuny scribe Af’onya suggested to substitute children. There was a big mess with this & as a result two boys remained in their families, but the rest thought they were not. In 18 years the tsar Ch’udo-‘Yudo reappeared to remember the king about his debt. He sent his son, a lazy idle Tsar’evich Andrej, to the underwater world. The Trasevich had to pass some trials there, but he failed due to his greediness & laziness. There he met the tsar Ch’udo-‘Yudo who had a beautiful & wise daughter Barbara. Ch’udo-‘Yudo wanted them to get married, but his daughter’s smart mind helped her to escape it.

At the same time the other Andrej, fisherman’s son, learnt what had happened and descended to the underwater world to save Tsar’evich. His natural kindness & courage allowed him to pass all the trials, to gain Barbara’s respect & affection as well as tosave everybody from Ch’udo-‘Yudo‘s anger. All three together they returned back home. The fisherman’s son got married with Barbara, while a lazy Tsar’evich remained himself.”

The movie is dubbed in English, German & Italian, enjoy watching, Esteemed Readers!

Maria KethuProfumo

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