Simple - Minded

Simple-Minded (Простодушный, 1994) is a Russian musical comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Directed by Yevgeny Ginzburg from Voltaire's tale, it drops a young Huron from the New World into the powdered, ceremonious France of the 17th century.

A provincial town decides to civilize the so-called savage. They baptize him, teach him manners, parade him through society — and he answers every custom with blunt, literal honesty. Then he falls for his own godmother, and the polite machinery starts to jam. Sergei Makhovikov plays the wide-eyed outsider, with Larisa Shakhvorostova and Armen Dzhigarkhanyan among the locals.

Ginzburg turns Voltaire's jab at "civilized" manners into a light, song-filled romp rather than a stiff period piece. Stream Simple-Minded (1994) online on iFILM.