Best USSR comedy Kidnapping Caucasian Style

Natalia Varley and Alexander Demyanenko as Nina and Shurik in Best USSR comedy Kidnapping Caucasian Style, 1966

Best USSR comedy Kidnapping Caucasian Style
Comedy film “Kidnapping, Caucasian Style” (1966), directed by Leonid Gaidai is an unsurpassed classic of cinema, best comedy in history, a real masterpiece of the 20th century! It is no exaggeration to say that the film was watched by every Soviet viewer several times. Only in the USSR it was watched by 76 500 000 people. No one has yet managed to beat Leonid Gaidai. The first time the film was shown on April 1, 1967. The spectators were literally rolling on the floor laughing. In another way, it was simply impossible. It was a completely new approach to cinema. The film “Kidnapping, Caucasian Style” is a masterwork, near and dear to everyone.

Vladimir Etush

The main character, Shurik (Alexander Demyanenko), came to one of the republics of the Caucasus mountain to collect folklore. There he falls in love with Nina. Shurik was fraudulently lured into the old ritual of bride kidnapping. Amateur of folklore, Shurik readily agrees. However, the kidnapped bride turned out to be his girlfriend, whom they want to be forced to marry. Naive and good Shurik not immediately figures out what’s going on, but then with the help of a loyal friend he releases “the captive” …

The three ‘kidnappers’ played by Morgunov, Nikulin, Vitsin

Natalya Varley, Alexander Demyanenko, Vladimir Etush, Frunzik Mkrtchyan, Ruslan Akhmetov, Yuri Nikulin, Georgy Vitsin, Yevgeny Morgunov, Noah Avaliani, Nina Grebeshkova Mikhail Gluzsky, Donar Mkrtchyan, Peter Repnin.

Natalia Varley and Alexander Demyanenko as Nina and Shurik

Despite the title of the film and by the film images, the film itself was shot not in the Caucasus but in the Crimea, the main filming location: city center of Alushta and Ghosts valley at the foot of Demerdzhi. In addition, in the film there are scenes shot in Simferopol (mental hospital), on top of Ai-Petri (where Shurik stopped car with Nina), in the Adler district of Sochi on the Mzymta River (mountain stream, in which Nina saves Shurik, the gulf seen from the window of her room).

Initially, the film was banned. Quite by accident General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev watched it, he liked the film, which made him laugh to tears, so he gave the permission for the show.