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This black and white political allegory set in Soviet Russia was filmed in 1980, and first saw the light of day at the 1989 Locarno Film Festival. The events taking place in a huge, ramshackle old house are told as seen by one of its none-too-bright residents. Of particular ironic bite is the tale of the policeman who climbs a tree in the yard in order to keep watch over the residents, who never leaves the tree even when, at the end of the film, it is burning. This uneven film is based on an unpublished novel by the screenwriter, Mikhail Konvaltchuk.