Volga-Volga

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Volga-Volga
Volga-volga.jpg
Film poster, 1938.
Directed by Grigori Aleksandrov
Starring Lyubov Orlova
Igor Ilyinsky
Music by Isaak Dunayevsky
Editing by Yeva Ladyzhenskaya
Release date(s) Soviet Union April 24, 1938
United States May 16, 1941
Running time 104 min.
Country Soviet Union
Language Russian

Volga-Volga (Russian: Волга-Волга) is a Soviet comedy directed by Grigori Aleksandrov, released on April 24, 1938. It centres around a group of amateur performers on their way to Moscow to perform in a talent contest called the Moscow Musical Olympiad. Most of the action takes place on a steamboat travelling on the Volga River. The lead roles were played by Alexandrov's wife Lyubov Orlova and Igor Ilyinsky.

According to Lyubov Orlova, the name of the film is taken from popular Russian folk song, "Stenka Razin", that Alexandrov sang while rowing with Charlie Chaplin upon the San Francisco Bay. Chaplin jokingly suggested the words for a title of a movie, but Alexandrov took it seriously and named his new film "Volga-Volga".[1]

The feature was said to be Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin's favourite film.[2] Nikita Khrushchev in his memoirs says that in pre-war period Stalin laughed at him since he resembled one character of the film.

In 2006, a colorization of the original black-and-white film was commenced. The colorized version premiered on the Russian First Channel on February 14, 2010.

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Full version of Volga-Volga in .ogv format

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[edit] External links