The Barber of Siberia

The Barber of Siberia (Сибирский цирюльник, Sibirskiy tsiryulnik) is a 1998 Russian film that re-united the Academy Award winning team of director Nikita Mikhalkov and Michel Seydoux. It was screened out of competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.

The Barber of Siberia is dedicated by Mikhalkov to Russian officers, and its main topic is the set of values regarded as the cornerstone of Russian mentality, culture and politics. Values like honor, truthfulness, and willingness to sacrifice one's life.

The plot is a love-story. Jane Callahan (Julia Ormond), a beautiful American, writes to her son, a cadet at a famous military academy, but who is he? Her memories take us back 20 years to when she arrived in Russia to assist Douglas McCracken (Richard Harris), an obsessive engineer who needs the Grand Duke's patronage to sponsor his invention, a massive machine to harvest the forests. On her travels, she meets two men who will change her life forever: a handsome young Andrey Tolstoy (Oleg Menshikov) with whom she shares a fondness for opera, and the powerful General Radlov (Alexei Petrenko) who is entranced by her beauty and wants to marry her. Tolstoy and Radlov, much to the surprise and indignation of the latter, become rivals for Jane's love. She confides a deep secret to Tolstoy, promises to marry him, and together they spend a passionate night of love. But later he overhears Jane denying her interest in him to the General. Distraught, Tolstoy attacks the General, who arrests his young rival on false charges and banishes him to Siberia, to 7 years of hard labor and 5 years of isolation.

Jane never gives up hope of finding Tolstoy, her true love. After ten years later, although by now married to McCracken, she returns to Russia to discover where he lives in Siberia. She goes to his home, where she finds that Tolstoy is married and has children. She leaves from there taking with her the secret of her true love which will forever tie her and her son to the huge mysterious country.


 * Bittersweet Ending
 * Blue Blood
 * Costume Porn: The sumptuous clothing, particularly the women's ballgowns and the men's military uniforms, are quite accurate to the 1880's, during which most of the movie is set.
 * Creator Cameo: Nikita Mikhalkov appears as Tsar Alexander III.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: By Eduard Artemyev.
 * Dances and Balls
 * Dawson Casting: 38 years old Oleg Menshikov as a military cadet Tolstoy.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: the U.S. Army drill sergeant who is instructing Jane's son and his fellow cadets in the framing scenes.
 * Feet First Introduction: at their first meeting, Tolstoy gets a (probably not entirely accidental) glimpse of Jane's booted foot; during The Victorian Era, of course, women's feet were supposed to be kept discreetly covered in public, so the sight of a woman's shoe or foot peeking out from under her skirt was highly titillating.
 * Framing Device
 * Gorgeous Period Dress: Most of the film is set during the 1880's, with the framing sequences pretty obviously being set during The Edwardian Era.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!
 * Two Harry Potter actors, Richard Harris (McCracken in this film, Dumbledore in those) and Robert Hardy (Forsten in this film, Fudge in those), are in The Barber of Siberia.
 * Hooker with a Heart of Gold:
 * Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: General Radlov
 * Mother Russia Makes You Strong: parodied with General Radlov.
 * Officer and a Gentleman: Andrei Tolstoy.
 * Opera Gloves: Most noticeably during the big Dances and Balls scenes.
 * Scenery Porn
 * Tsarist Russia