Assia and the Hen with the Golden Eggs (1994)

Kurochka Ryaba is a sarcastic sour comedy sequel to Konchalovsky's own 1966 movie 'The Story of Asya Klyachina, Who Loved, But Did Not Marry'. Original actors Aleksandr Surin and Gennady Yegorychev reprise their original roles of Stepan and Chirkunov, whilst Inna Churikova plays Asya. At the eve of the fall of the USSR, Perestroika has not spared the protagonists' remote village and whilst Chirkunov has embraced the changes to the dismay of his old kolkhoz co-workers, a bitter Asya tries to rally the village against him in the name of old communist mores and values, whilst a still good-for-nothing Stepan hopes Asya will take him back. Envy, jealousy and other petty conflicts are going on when the arrival of Asya's son from the city coincide with Asya's discovery a 'miracle' golden egg she thinks her chicken has laid. Old communist habits die hard : the whole village discuss what to do with what they consider their new communal wealth, but at the idea of herself being now personally wealthy Asya changes her tune. The egg however is no folk tale miracle but the loot of a shady crime being hidden by her son from mafia-like gangs from the city. Meanwhile the tragic frustrated love Chirkunov has always felt for Asya since their youth will be revealed and, despite all his courting efforts and all his entrepreneurial success, will find no happy end.