Andrey Urgant, Roman Kartsev and Zinovy Gerdt on the set of "The Drayman and the King" in Odessa in 1989

The Soviet musical is, of course, quite the oxymoron. But Vladimir Alenikov's "The Drayman and the King" is a rare case in which the genre does not turn a classic into a sideshow, but merely sharpens the wit and sadness of the original. Before the viewer unfolds a genuinely Babelian Odessa, the setting of a theatrical parable about old lions giving way to young predators.

At its centre are Mendel Krik, who on the threshold of old age has decided to throw everything over for love, and his son Benya, who has more pragmatic designs in the matter.

The film delights with its Odessan intellectual richness and the virtuoso performances of Evstigneev, Gerdt and Vasilyeva. It is lively, textured cinema, in which the drama of inevitable change is not lost behind the juicy patter and colourful mise-en-scène.

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