Winter Evening in Gagry

Winter Evening in Gagry is an effervescent musical that lovingly looks back at the history of a Russian song-and-dance man. Yevgeny Yevstigneyev plays Alexei Beglov, a down on his luck dance coach working on a bloated modern spectacle, complete with strobe-lighted sphinx. One day he sees an old newsreel clip of himself tap-dancing on TV, followed by the commentator announcing his death.

Reinvigorated by this falsehood, he attempts to teach an acerbic middle-aged fan to tap dance, and tries to reconnect with his daughter. Directed by Karen Shakhnazarov ("We Are Jazzmen"), the film is soaked in nostalgia (and wondrous period tap sequences) but contains no illusions as to the price paid by the passage of time. Wise, witty, and with a spring in its step, Gagry is an absolute delight.

Producer: Mosfilm Studios
Writers: Alexander Borodyansky and Karen Shakahnazarov
Director: Karen Shakhnazarov
Cinematography: Vladimir Shevtsik
Production Designer: Valery Flippov
Music by: Anatoly Kroll
Cast: Yevgeny Yevstigneyev, Arkady Nasyrov, Alexander Pankratov-Chyorny, Natalya Gundareva, Sergey Nikonenko, Pyotr Shcherbakov, Svetlana Amanova, Georgy Burkov, Alexander Shirvindt Moscow Chamber Ballet Soloists: L. Sabitova, A. Klokov
Step Dancers: Ye. Zernov, V. Kirsanov, I. Fedotkin, O. Fedotkin, V. Ivanov