The Barber of Siberia

By the end of it, no peasant imagined the first shy blooms of springtime more fervently than we, the audience, stoically awaited the closing credits.

The film's aspirations to represent the relationship between Russia and the US in symbolic form are not supported by any psychological acuity in the characterisation. The bigger the role, the more the actor flounders.

Overblown, overlong and decidedly underwhelming on every level, Nikita Mikhalkov’s magnum opus “The Barber of Siberia” is a singular disappointment.

What Chekhov would have dealt with in a few pages, writer/director Mikhalkov takes three hours to tell.

The scope of the story and its imense visual splendour leave little room for any human touches or emotion, which leaves the film lacking in soul.

Perhaps the worst film ever created by a major contemporary international filmmaker.

The scope of the story and its imense visual splendour leave little room for any human touches or emotion, which leaves the film lacking in soul.