A Masterpiece!

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Well, this certainly isn't your run of the mill rock'n'roll concert. On June 12, 1993 the Leningrad Cowboys joined forces with the Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble to perform a live concert in Helsinki's Senate Square in front of an audience of 70,000 people. The sheer incongruity and improbability of this event gives the whole thing a marvelously surreal aura: The Leningrad Cowboys sport their trademark ridiculous unicorn horn hairstyles and pointy shoes while the Red Army choir are dressed to the dignified nines in their military uniforms and really pour their hearts and souls into their singing. But somehow these two radically contrasting groups mesh perfectly into a fantastic whole, with spot-on stirring performances of such songs as the majestic "Volga Boatman," the joyous "Happy Together," the stately "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," the lovely "Kalinka," and an especially spirited rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama." Best of all, this concert stands tall as a glorious testament on how the power of music crosses all cultural boundaries and brings people together. A total treat.

I was living in Lahti when this show was broadcast on Finnish television.I was completely stunned by the severe clash of cultures.On the one hand,a group of comically dressed musicians,very competent and visually appealing obviously spoofing the teddy boy craze and on the other hand one of the best choruses in the world dressed in their military finest. You could not expect the two divergent musical styles to get along,much less complement.... But it all works well,with the wonderful antique tractor on full display and the Red Army chorus singing Sweet Home Alabama.What a wonderful show it must have been to see live.It seems like the entire city of Helsinki was there. Hey that is only 500,000 but that's a lot of Finns in one place.

It's unlikely you'll ever see a concert film quite like the one shot on 12 June 1993 in Helsinki, Finland with the Leningrad Cowboys and the Alexandrov Red Army Choir and Dancers. 13 songs: "Finlandia" by Sibelius; "Let's Work Together" - with the drummer on a stage designed like a tractor, guitars in the shape of tractors and some air guitar action; "Volga Boatmen"; "Happy Together"; "Delilah"; "Knocking on Heaven's Door" with 6 women dancers in folk costume; "Oh Field" (the incongruity of the solemness of the Red Army Choir coupled with the Leningrad Cowboys lying flat on their backs, hair sticking up vertically a foot or so, and waving the boots with the curly toes back and forth cracked me up); Cossack dancing in "Kalinka"; "Gimme All Your Loving"; numerous dance troupes accompanying "Jewelry Box"; "Sweet Home Alabama"; "Dark Eyes"; and closing with "Those Were The Days" with Kirsi Tykkylainen (who also sings this song in the 1992 short of the same name).The set designs were quite amusing, different aspects being revealed by lighting chances throughout the performance. The concert was bookended by a scene at the beginning titled "Moscow, May 28, 1993" with one of the Leningrad Cowboys and some functionary signing a document and a bust of Lenin spotlighted at the ending.

Having seen 2 performances by the Leningrad Cowboys and listened to their cd's I can only conclude that this documentary gives a hint of the excellence of the total. The choir is one of the best in the world and the band is the best in the world(IMHO).I would have a preferred to see the entire show including the intermissions, that would have given a more complete sence of the overal atmosfere.