good back-story, and good acting

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Since we in the west are used to seeing the Disney versions of "Cinderella", it may surprise us that there was in fact a Soviet version. You probably never assumed that the USSR could have made such a glossy movie, but "Zolushka" is one impressive piece of work. For a country that wasn't into aesthetics, they produced a movie that was a real piece of eye candy. The screenwriters added a satirical side to it, but you'll probably best remember the costumes and scenery. During the ball, one of the stepsisters has Princess Leia hair buns.Basically, this movie is more interesting than the ones released by Disney. I suspect that they had fun making it, especially with Faina Ranevskaya's emoting as the stepmother. An truly enjoyable time.I bet that Yanina Zheymo had to beat guys off with a stick after starring in this.

It have beautiful colors and nice costumes. I am quite sure children will enjoy it a lot. It is the classical Cindarella story just with some crazy twists.But for me it was just too silly. It seemed a bit like a cartoon just with human actors. It is really magnificent colors and costumes. But all the characters are overplayed too much. Especially the king is too much overplayed and seem like a raving madman. That can have political reasons for the time but for me it just seems plain stupid.Normally I love fantasy and also cartoons, but I simply cannot recommend this unless for a family movie with children.

When I saw this movie I was going to point out that this film was meant for children audiences only cause it had the mentality of it and it wasn't meant for adults.Cinderallas being 12 years old and prince charming looking 13 . The step mother looks more like grandmother. The Two step sister could be her , Cinderella's , mother and aunt.And because the two step sister's were vying to be the wife of the prince would make it very campy by todays standard because of age differences. But I was surprised to discover that the actress ,who played Cinderella Yanina Zhejmo, was born 1909, and the actor who played the prince ,Aleksie Konsovsky,was born 1912, They didn't look that old. These actors might be dwarfs, may be . They are taller than midgets and have youth appearance. The actors playing the rest of the roles were taller than them . I might be wrong about it.It's not impossible for people to have youthful appearances but they arn't tall neither.This moves designs and costumes were shot as if it was going to be shot in color. At that time AGFA color was now available in Russia ,whay didn't they use it ? This version the prince had a single parent. His mother ,the queen, must have died . Although I don't understand Russian, It had excessive talk. The king was a bad temper character , throwing his wig and crown off every time he lost his temper .It's still very campy by todays standards

It is easily one of the best films ever made and if you don't like it, you should check your taste in cinema and the brain. "Zolushka" shows how the films were once made in our country: wisdom, funny jokes, superior performances, enchanting music - whatever you take, everything was done with heart on a highest aesthetic level.The psychotic king is amazingly brought to life by Mr Erast Garin. The evil stepmother "shines" with the help of Mrs Faina Ranevskaya's talent. And the interpretation of Cinderella by Ms Yanina Zhejmo is just to the point. The innocence and goodness of Cinderella drives me almost to tears and it speaks a lot, be sure.If you want your children to grow up sane and good persons, don't fail to show them films like this one.10 out of 10 - it simply must not be given less while it is a timeless classic for all ages and for all millenniums. Thank you for attention.