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This Soviet Russian film is loosely based on Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Georgian director Georgi Daniela aptly brings the sometimes obscure, even surreal, Georgian sense of humor to the screen using two of his favorite actors, Vakhtang Kikabidze (as the "Duke") and Yevgeni Leonov (as the "King"). In the movie, Huck is more or less happily learning how to properly use a knife and fork when his drunken, abusive father hauls him away. Fortunately, he is able to run away from his father, and he joins up with the escaped slave Jim. The two of them journey down the big river and have many adventures in the company of the Duke and the King, two eccentric and unlucky con-men. One highlight is the scene in which the two con-men, whose scheme has gone awry, are tarred and feathered by angry townsfolk.