Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future

Did You Know?

• On September 21, 2016, Google celebrated the 43rd anniversary of the film with a Google Doodle.
• In November 2020, Sberbank released an advertisement in which George Miloslavsky traveled to Moscow via time machine, with his image recreated using Deepfake technology.
• In 2014, Italian pop punk band Vanilla Sky recorded a cover of the song "Zvenit yanvarskaya vyuga" along with a music video.

Plot

In 1973 Moscow, engineer Aleksandr "Shurik" Timofeyev works on a time machine in his apartment. An accident sends superintendent Ivan Vasilievich Bunsha and burglar George Miloslavsky back to the 16th century, the time of tsar Ivan IV "The Terrible". Bunsha disguises himself as the tsar, and Miloslavsky as a knyaz of the same name. The real Ivan IV is transported into Shurik's apartment and must cope with modern life while Shurik tries to repair the machine. Bunsha and Ivan IV are lookalikes with opposite personalities, creating mistaken-identity comedy. The police, alerted by a neighbor burgled by Miloslavsky, close in. Bunsha and Miloslavsky are exposed and fight the Streltsy. All three are returned to their proper timelines, and the episode is revealed as Shurik's dream—or is it?

Production

Filming locations included Moscow (New Arbat Avenue, formerly Kalinin Prospekt), the Rostov Kremlin, and Yalta in the Crimean Oblast. The time machine was created by artist and wood sculptor Vyacheslav Pochechuev after an initial expressionless computer-like layout was rejected. Pochechuev sketched a new model and, with a designer, locksmith, and glassblower, built it in a few days. He received a prize of 40 rubles; the accounting department certificate read: "The money was issued for the invention of a time machine." Nina Brodskaya performed the song "Zvenit yanvarskaya vyuga"; it was also recorded by Sofia Rotaru. Lev Polosin, Boris Kuznetsov, and the Moscow Military District Choir performed "Kap-Kap-Kap" ("Marusya"). Valery Zolotukhin performed "Razgovor so schast'em".