Please don't spend money on this.

Best movie of this year hands down!

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Blistering performances.

USSR 135m, Colour Director: Georgiy Daneliya; Cast: Stanislav Lyubshin, Yevgeni Leonov, Yury Yakovlev, Levan GabriadzeKin-dza-dza! is a brilliantly bizarre dystopian science fiction movie set in the Kin-dza-dza galaxy on the planet Plyuk which is near devoid of its natural resources, and where social status is based on the colour of your pants. Essentially a buddy movie, Mashkov and Gedevan are two unsuspecting Russian citizens who are accidentally transported to Plyuk where they are befriended by a pair of capitalistic, nose-bell trading, telepathic entertainers who want nothing more than the box of matches that Mashkov has in his pocket. As outsiders, they must adopt the galaxy's hilariously strange customs if they hope to find a way back to earth in this superbly conceived, darkly humorous, and thoughtful social satire (Klaus Ming June 2013).

I was born in Tbilisi - it's the capitol of former Soviet republic Georgia. Georgi Nikolajevitch Danelija is Tbilisian too. In fact, it was some kind of luck for me to be born there - in the land of good-hearted people and great culture traditions. That's why I understand this film much more than ordinary Russian people. This is a film of great humor and satire, a film of those thin things running through Your soul when You remember Your childhood, Your urban friends, and, of course, Your Motherland. There are some untranslated Georgian phrases in "Kin-dza-dza" - to show kinda relation between Gedevan (he is Georgian) and Uef - and some Georgian music motives ("Dim-pi-ty, dam-pi-ty").

First of all, sorry for my bad English. :) "Kin-dza-dza" is not a sci-fi at all, actually. This film just uses some stereotypes, the outer seeming of sci-fi. It's not a "classical" anti-utopia also. And it has little in common with "Star Wars". :) "Kin-dza-dza" is a kind of absurdism, in my opinion. Like Kafka or some of David Lynch works, for example… or rather "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Catch 22", in some (humorous) ways. "Kin-dza-dza" uses "reductio ad absurdum" method and surrealistic symbolism to help us open and clear our mind for new aspects, new point of view on human and society, and even humankind. If you understand that fact it helps you to understand the film.Unfortunately it will be not so easy for non-Russian(/Soviet) audience to catch the degree of absurdism, symbolism and how to correlate them to reality. Especially, without high-quality translation and comments. But never say "never", as you know.

If you want to have an idea of what it is - well, it's a kind of Soviet HGTTG. However, the cultural basis of HGTTG (all this British towel-and-robe-and-almost-but-not-quite-entirely-unlike-tea stuff) is much easier to understand for an average Western person compared to the Soviet culture of this movie. Also, it's a much darker comedy compared to HGTTG - but I think everyone knows Russians rarely smile...You expect it to be funny? No, there are too many cultural references, too many hard-to-translate jokes. And the available translations are hardly close to giving you a hint on what this movie is about. Maybe there exists a good translation somewhere, adapted to western world and still retaining the humor, but I haven't seen it yet.You expect some good sci-fi? No, it's got crappy special effects, no action, and there are huge holes in the plot in everything relating to sci-fi. You will be cursing about stupid and illogical usage of things like "planet", "galaxy" and "instant travel" all the time. There's even less of sci-fi in it than in HGTTG.However, if you're adventurous, open, if you want to learn something new, and if you like movies not for special effects but for the pieces of soul the directors, the writers and the actors put into them, and for their efforts to make you think - try this movie, it won't fail you.Also, it is a cult classic in Russia, and millions of Russian fans just cannot be wrong :)It's best to learn Russian first, of course :)