This is a masterpiece.

The film captures the icy, timeless beauty of Petersburg as well as its eerie atmosphere at the time of the Soviet collapse. Balabanov's mastery of the visual language of Russian avant-garde movies of the twenties is striking. He creates a perfect movie, where every scene is vividly true in its absurdity.

Having previously seen "Pro urodov i ljudej" in glorious sepia, I was already familiar with the idiosyncratic world of Balabanov, very much akin to Caro and Jeunet's vision of mankind in their similarly bleak rendition of emotional down-spiraling. Constructed as a simile of a theme with many variations, recurring and developing throughout the film, this superbly shot black and white gem could have been shot in the 50s or the 70s or the 90s - so simple and so powerful are its characters and circumstances. The continuous attempts to fit in, to find one's niche in the empty and desolate landscape of a somewhat modern, but clearly abandoned city constitute the narrative, punctuated by eccentric yet very realistic characters some of whom we only hear. Simple events can turn out to be phantasmagorias, and the most unusual noises and visual sequences reveal to be but a look from aside. Camera-work is mesmerizing - the sequences in the dark foyer, the crane shot over the city near the end of the film, as well as the ending - are simply stunning. Fans of Raoul Ruiz, Caro and Jeunet - this is a must-see film!

He always wears a hat,even in bed after his operations in a mental hospital.

All he wants is a place to live but the huge city of St Petersburg is as cold and unwelcoming as it was to the characters of Gogol and Dostoyevsky. Nobody wants to know him except a blind beggar with a donkey and an aristocratic woman turned prostitute.

Superb black and white photography. Unlike most American films, a trim 86 minutes long - less is certainly more in this case.