Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair (Варвара-краса, длинная коса) is a 1970 film from the Soviet Union.
It's a surrealistic fairy tale. In some gingerbread version of the past, a very silly tsar named Yeremei goes on a survey of his kingdom, seeking to count every mushroom and blade of grass. Unlike William the Conqueror he goes himself rather than outsourcing the work. At the end of his tour of the kingdom, a thirsty Tsar Yeremei goes to a well for a drink. Suddenly, a creature reaches out from the well and grabs the tsar's beard.
It's Chudo Yudo, the "underwater tsar", king of the mystical underworld
. Chudo Yudo, who looks sort of half-human and half-Yoda, demands a bribe for letting the tsar go. In return for letting Tsar Yeremei go, Chudo Yudo demands whatever there is in Yeremei's kingdom that he doesn't know about. Tsar Yeremei, who after all has just made a comprehensive survey of the kingdom, agrees to this easily.
However, in Yeremei's absence, his tsarina has delivered him a son, Andrey. Faced with the prospect of losing his son to the lord of the underworld, Yeremei has his minister switch out his baby with a newborn son of a fisherman, also named Andrey. Eighteen years pass. The Andrey raised as the tsar's son is a fat, spoiled, whiny manchild. The Andrey raised with the fisherman is handsome, brave young man. So when Chudo Yudo comes back and demands his ransom, Tsar Yeremei has no problem throwing the fat Andrey into a well. Chudo Yudo decides fat Andrey will marry his daughter Barbara, a beautiful, magical princess. Meanwhile, he reclaims Fisherman Andrey and makes him the new heir. But what Yeremei doesn't know is that after a serving-woman switched the babies around 18 years ago, Yeremei's minister, who didn't know about that switch, accidentally switched them back.
Tropes:
- Animorphism: Barbara can change herself into animals, and over the course of the film she changes herself into a bird, a mouse, and a little dog. She can also do this to others, changing Fisherman Andrey into a puppy along with herself when they're trying to avoid the posse chasing after them.
- Big Eater: Tsarevich Andrey, who is the sort of fat pig aristocrat the Bolsheviks revolted against. He's given a carrot and a pot of honey to feed, respectively, the donkey and the bears that are meant to carry him to Chudo Yudo's lair; instead he eats all the food himself. At the end when he's back home, the serving women give him an elaborate cake shaped like a castle; he just starts shoveling it into his mouth in handfuls.
- Blade-of-Grass Cut: Part of a Time-Passes Montage, as we see closeups of leaves and branches and flowers, then branches covered in snow and ice, showing the passing of the seasons and years.
- Brats with Slingshots: Part of Tsarevich Andrey's idiot manchild persona is carrying around a slingshot. He takes a shot at Barbara when she's in the form of a bird; she's offended.
- Creepy Crows: Whenever characters visit the well that is a passage to Chudo Yudo's underground kingdom, there are always a bunch of crows around, croaking creepily.
- Door-Closes Ending: Ends with the old lady narrator closing her window.
- The End: Ends with the old lady narrator saying "Our tale has come to...", and the Russian konets, "end", appearing on screen.
- Fairy Tale: The "underwater tsar" winds up exacting a promise from the aboveground tsar. Based on a 19th century Russian fairy tale.
- Narrator: The story is narrated by an old lady who has a marionette of Tsar Yeremei.
- Rhymes on a Dime: All of the old lady narrator's dialogue rhymes.
- Switched at Birth: Subverted. The tsar and his minister come up with the plan to switch his infant son with the infant son of a fisherman, but the babies accidentally get switched back.
- Talking Animal: The donkey who carries visitors to Chudo Yudo's realm to a lake, and the bears who operate a ferry that takes the visitors across the lake to Chudo Yudo's home. The bears are offended when Tsarevich Andrey eats their honey.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: The various goofballs and idiots who are paraded before Barbara as marriage candidates. One says he can read minds; he reads Barbara's and turns around and leaves.
- Thanking the Viewer: The film ends with the whimsical old lady narrator thanking the audience for watching.
- Time Lapse: Used for a sequence of buds opening into flowers when Barbara and Fisherman Andrey make their escape, and are finally together for good.
- Upper-Class Twit: Tsarevich Andrey, a fat, lazy doofus, who eats like a pig and carries around a slingshot to shoot rocks at birds.
