Elections Day

Elections Day (Den vyborov, 2007) is a Russian comedy directed by Oleg Fomin that you can watch online on iFILM. The crew of a top Moscow radio station gets handed an absurd assignment: in six weeks, turn a complete nobody into a regional governor.

To peel votes away from the sitting favorite, the producers, DJs and musicians pile onto a Volga riverboat and improvise an entire campaign as they sail. Songs, drunken rallies and a planted decoy candidate — nothing goes the way it should. The comedy troupe Kvartet I (Leonid Barats, Rostislav Khait, Kamil Larin, Aleksandr Demidov) essentially play themselves, riffing nonstop, with Nonna Grishaeva, Mikhail Efremov and Maksim Vitorgan along for the ride.

Adapted from Kvartet I's own stage show, the film lives on its dialogue — half of which long ago turned into Russian catchphrases. It's not biting political satire so much as a warm, shaggy farce about order somehow emerging from chaos. Stream Elections Day (2007) online on iFILM.