| Three Friends and an Invention | |
| Native Name: | ru|Два друга, модель и подруга |
| Director: | Aleksei Popov |
| Country: | Soviet Union |
Three Friends and an Invention (ru|Два друга, модель и подруга|Dva druga, model i podruga) (Two friends, a model and a girlfriend) is a 1927 Soviet film directed by Aleksei Popov.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The film is a light-hearted satire about the misadventures of two friends who are young workers at a soap-making factory.[6]
Ahov and Mahov, young workers at a small soap factory, invent a machine capable of significantly accelerating the production of soap packaging. However, they face many hardships, including bureaucratic indifference from the factory's director, who shows no interest in either the inventors or the manufacturing process. Additionally, they are opposed by nepmen like Ardalion Medalionov, a private entrepreneur and packaging supplier who sees their invention as a threat to his business.
While the local Komsomol organization is ready to support the workers, a demonstration of the machine ends in failure due to Medalionov sabotaging it. Pursued by Medalionov and his accomplices, Ahov, Mahov, and Dasha—a fellow factory worker whom they frequently flirt with—set off with their machine on a makeshift raft to reach a district center. However, Medalionov has already slandered them as crazed inventors, leading local authorities to detain the trio in a port warehouse, labeling them dangerous lunatics.
With Dasha's help, they manage to escape but encounter the same bureaucratic resistance at the district level. Undeterred, they continue their journey, enduring numerous adventures aboard a steamboat. Finally, thanks to their alliance with the Komsomol, the friends achieve reasonable results in their inventive labor and pursuits when they reach the provincial capital, where their machine is at last recognized and appreciated.
From the book Memories and Reflections on Theater written by the film's director, Aleksei Popov:
A. D. Popov said that the idea was born in him, as a response to the comedy Ole & Axel, which was running successfully on Soviet screens. And really, it was easy to notice in the main role of the film – small, nimble Akhov and tall, ungainly Makhov – the features of their cinematic inspirations, Ole and Axel. Nevertheless, Popov's comedy was both very modern and genuinely accessible. It scathingly ridiculed bureaucracy, was full of cheerful humor in its portrayal of a far province, a quiet backwater corner, where one can begin a new life. Popov lovingly resurrected onscreen these quiet, lost places, fields of rye, flowing spring waters, and his scenic sketches of everyday episodes that were full of their own sharp and precise observations.
By some measure, this film could be considered the first Soviet road movie. The heroes make their way to the district center on a steam boat, then move onto a makeshift float, encountering the same bureaucratic obstacles everywhere.