1934 · comedy · satire · historical
Lieutenant Kije
Directed by Alexandr Faintsimmer1h 23m1934
A copying error by a military scribe turns the Russian words "the lieutenants, however" into what looks like "lieutenant Kizhe". The Tsar reads the error, and wants to meet this (non-existent) lieutenant. The courtiers, eager to avoid the wrath of the temperamental Tsar, create a Kizhe to serve as their royal scapegoat.
Our read: Lieutenant Kije (1934) reads as a warm, kinetic, inventive comedy · satire · historical entry — gentle in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.
Warm, kinetic, gentle comedy / satire, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, measured.
- warm
- brisk
- inventive
- funny
Watching Lieutenant Kije tonight? Spin for your lens.
Everyone on the couch spins once and gets one craft to watch for. After the credits, compare what you caught.
Your lens for tonight
?
Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.
More info & search links
How Lieutenant Kije feels to watch.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
What watching it is actually like.
“You want a clever 1930s Soviet satire about a bureaucratic error that creates a phantom lieutenant.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if black-and-white Russian period comedy with subtitles feels too antique.
Eight films that feel like this one.
Closest in the twelve-axis space, not “people also liked”. All films like Lieutenant Kije, with why →
Discussion
Make it a movie night.
Pick a mood, get a film the whole couch will enjoy, and give everyone something to watch for.
Pick tonight's film →