A comedian torn between art and success

That The Humorist is a Russian arthouse film, often deliberately discomforting,  is certain to be enough to put a lot of potential viewers off.

But this story of a comedian caught between art and success – a dilemma magnified a thousandfold by the backdrop of a brutally censorious Soviet regime – is an engrossing character study that is bleak, absurd and funny, often at the same time.

Our hero, Boris Arkadiev, once had ambitions to be the great Russian novelist, but his first and only book sank. Now he finds himself a comedian, but a hugely successful one thanks to a trademark routine: a whimsical tale of a mischievous monkey that he’s always asked to perform.

It’s far from the more social and politically charged material he’d prefer to be doing – but would never get past the censors, who screen every script. As it is, the KGB happen to be some of his biggest fans, with agents calling backstage before gigs,and powerful local generals summoning him to make some peculiar personal appearances.

Breakout star Aleksey Agranovich brings a mesmerising, broody aura to Arkadiev as a man on the verge of a breakdown: a sharp intellect who has himself become little more than a performing monkey for the party apparatchiks.

It has, however, brought him a good life. The scene is set at a louche dinner party full of fellow artists where his irrefutable  wit, charisma, and compromised place in the creative sphere are all efficiently established.

Among his fellow guests are his former comedy writing partner, an idealistic but struggling artist who represents a more authentic version of what Arkadiev could be, and Max (Yuri Kolokolnikov) an actor fresh from a trip to America and full of  excited tales of what the comedians there have the freedom to say.

This crucial dinner scene also introduces an ethnic undertow that’s never far from the surface as Jewish  Arkadiev makes some acerbic jokes about his people that his fellow guests cannot compete with.

The Humorist is set in 1984, as the Soviet state is at his most bloated, corrupt, sinister and complacent. When Arkadiev is summoned by the powers that be, he never knows his fate. One such sinister incident ends in a truly farcical situation in an empty bunker, another at the birthday party for the wife of a local KGB bigwig, which lies somewhere between a tense mafioso powwow and the last days of Rome – a metaphor that’s very heavily underlined in a climactic, high-stakes sauna scene, with all concerned wearing their towels like togas.

The film – the directorial debut of screenwriter Michael Idov – looks great from start to finish, from the clean modernistic Soviet architecture to the misjudged excess of that birthday feast. But however visually stunning the backdrop, it’s Agranovich’s subtle but intense performance you cannot keep your eyes off as his character becomes increasingly troubled by the lack of control he has over his life, while his coping mechanisms, whether through barbed sardonic wit or alcohol, are all doomed to deepen his malaise.

• The Humorist (original title Yumorist) has just arrived on YourScreen, following a number of festival screenings over the past couple of years. It costs £9.99 to rent, but several arts establishments have teamed up with the distributors to offer 25 per cent off codes, which also benefits the venues. Examples are ABERYS for the Aberystwyth Arts Centre, HOME25  for Home in Manchester or HASTYS for the Electric Palace in Hastings.

Review date: 17 Mar 2021
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett