"The Barber of Siberia" is dedicated by Mikhalkov to Russian officers, "the pride of the country", and its main topic is the set of values regarded as the cornerstone of Russian mentality, culture and politics. Those values seem to be honor and truthfulness, but also to obey authority and blind willingness to sacrifice one's life. The plot is a love-story, however a very unorthodox one. Jane Callahan, a once beautiful American, writes to her son, a cadet at a famous military academy, but who is he? Her memories take us back 20 years to when she arrived in Russia to assist Douglas McCracken, an obsessive engineer who needs the Grand Duke's patronage to sponsor his invention...
The film is set during 1962 in Sevastopol, Crimea, then a secret Navy Base in the Soviet Union. General Serov hires Viktor, a cadet from the Kremlin Guard to work as his private chauffeur. In a jet-black "ZIM" limo, Viktor is chauffeuring the General's disabled daughter Vera. Viktor is oblivious to the hidden agenda of the KGB agent Saveliev, who manipulates everyone behind the scenes in the old rivalry between the Army and KGB.
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