A film session from the anniversary program based on Saltykov-Shchedrin - a rare chance to see a satirical adaptation where hypocrisy, power, and moral decay emerge behind the grotesque. The story keeps you on edge: funny and awkward at the same time, and recognizable types linger long after the finale. The screening is prepared with the support of the State Film Fund. The satirical texts of Saltykov-Shchedrin can wound more precisely than any direct speech. In this adaptation from the late 1980s, humor constantly borders on anxiety: it seems like a caricature, but familiar mechanisms emerge behind it - reverence for rank, fear of losing power, readiness to hide the truth behind beautiful words. The plot unfolds as a chain of confrontations with the "system," where every gesture of the hero is read in two ways: what he actually did and how it will be interpreted "from above." Hence arises a sense of absurdity - as if the world lives by rules that change the moment you get used to them. The director works with grotesque carefully: comic details do not entertain for the sake of laughter, but emphasize the discord between external well-being and internal emptiness.