It never hurts for a filmmaker to enjoy the favour of people at the top level of government. During the Great Purge in the Soviet Union it was not only a matter of career advancement but actually a matter of physical survival. One of those fortunates was Grigori Aleksandrov, whose 1938 musical comedy *Volga-Volga* is known as Stalin’s favourite film. The plot begins in Melkovodsk, a fictional small town somewhere in…







