TOTAL BALALAIKA SHOW European Cinema

Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki’s Total Balalaika Show is the most inspired crosscultural pairing since Nureyev danced with Miss Piggy. This concert documentary has Finland’s musically challenged roc·k band, the Leningrad Cowboys, trading hotlicks and bellowing dopey standards with the sometimes baffled, but always sonorous, ex-Red Army choir in a universally crowd-pleasing 1993 performance. From the first note, it’s Irony Curtain all the way. Numbers include Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (with balalaika chorus) and a soloist doing a good Tom Jones imitation with “Delilah.” Kaurismaki provides the viewer with better than front-row seats, capturing the earnest conductor and his hard-working charges from multiple angles. Inspired stage decoration includes a bust of Lenin irreverently hunkered down behind the wheel of a convertible. This hour-long show is not to be missed.-Lisa Nesselson, Variety