Mimino (Georgian: მიმინო Russian: Мимино) , is a 1977 comedy film by Soviet Georgian director Georgi Danelia produced by Mosfilm and Gruziya-film, starring Vakhtang Kikabidze and Frunzik Mkrtchyan. The Soviet era comedy won the 1977 Golden Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival.
Georgian bush pilot Mimino (Vakhtang Kikabidze) works at small local airlines, flying helicopters between small villages. But he dreams of piloting large international airlines aircraft, so he decides to go to Moscow to follow his dream. There in a hotel he meets Armenian truck driver Roobik Khachikyan (Frunzik Mkrtchyan) who is given a place in that hotel by mistake instead of another Khachikyan (Professor), and they have a lot of adventures in Moscow.
Always amicable and open to people, Mimino does not feel at home in the big city. Nevertheless, he becomes a pilot of a supersonic jet liner, the Tupolev Tu-144, flying all over the world. But feeling homesick, he finally comes back to his native town of Telavi in Georgia, to his family and friends.
Mimino's real name in the film is Valentin Mizandari - his nickname 'Mimino' is the Georgian word for falcon.
This film provides examples of:
- Bad Liar: Rubik is hilarously bad at lying during the court scenes.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Mimino was ready to go to the jail, but he wouldn't tell why exactly he attacked that man. Because he seduced his sister and fled, leaving her alone with a child.
- Character Title: Mimino is the main character.
- A Father to His Men: Givi Ivanovich, Mimino's boss, when he was a civilian pilot in Tbilisi.
- Hot-Blooded: protagonist. Once, he lashes out on stewardess who just asked him if he wants a glass of water, driving her to tears. He apologizes right away, though.
- It's a Small World, After All: Overlaps with Contrived Coincidence. In one scene, after having become an international pilot and flying all around the world, Mimino has a short stay between flights in West Germany. He goes to town to look for a toy crocodile to bring back to Khachikyan (for the latter's kid) and then tries to phone a number in his home village, Telavi. However, the operator, having misheard him, connects him to the same number in Tel Aviv. So far, so good, the two places do sound somewhat alike. What is less likely is that he speaks to somebody named Itzhak, who is -supposedly- a Georgian Jew, originally from Kutaisi; while there are quite a few Georgian Jews who emigrated to Israel, even before the fall of the USSR, the likelihood of just happening to call one by accident is somewhat low. However, it serves to both show Mimino's heart of gold, as he spends all his money on the phone call to console the homesick Itzhak (who, after talking to Mimino for a while, asks him how things are in Kutaisi, then sings Georgian songs with him and starts to cry on the phone) and has to walk back to the airport, and to remind him of his own homesickness.
- Mistaken for Special Guest:
- Rubik gets his hotel room because he happens to have the same surname as famous endocrinologist. While Mimino himself got the same hotel room because he was told to pretend like he is endocrinologist too or otherwise he wouldn't get the room at all.
- How Mimino got that hotel room: he calls someone who knows someone who can get him a hotel room. After he came home to couple's home who are connected enough, says his name, they arrange everything on the phone and he leaves, they both wonder how exactly he is related to them at all. On a side note, while this is exaggerated and Played for Laughs here, the general procedure of obtaining quite a lot of things in Soviet times was exactly like this: through connections and friends of friends of second cousins once removed and so on, called po blatu in Russian.
- Racial Face Blindness: Parodied. In a
Deleted Scene Rubik (Armenian, short, plump, with a Perma-Stubble) and Mimino (Georgian, Tall, Dark, and Handsome, with a Porn Stache) ride a hotel elevator with the two inexplicably identical Japanese men. One of the Japanese tells to another: "These Russians are all alike"
