# The Twelve Chairs (1977)

> Two swindlers chase a hidden fortune in diamonds across late-1920s Soviet Russia in this satirical miniseries adapted from the classic novel.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/40203

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 77 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy, adventure
- Network: Central Television USSR
- Cast: Andrey Mironov, Anatoliy Papanov, Zinoviy Gerdt, Rolan Bykov, Georgiy Vitsin, Nikolai Skorobogatov, Oleg Tabakov, Tatyana Pelttser
- TMDB rating: 8.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075468/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: satirical, wry, playful, breezy, cynical

## What critics say

Viewers broadly acclaim this Soviet television adaptation of the Ilf and Petrov satirical novel for its sharp comic performances and witty rendering of the chase.

## Synopsis

The Twelve Chairs (1977) is a Soviet television miniseries created for Central Television USSR, a four-episode adaptation of the satirical novel by Ilf and Petrov. Andrey Mironov plays the fast-talking schemer Ostap Bender opposite Anatoliy Papanov as the faded former aristocrat Ippolit Vorobyaninov, nicknamed Kisa. Their engine is simple and greedy: a stash of diamonds has been sewn into one of a set of twelve dining chairs, and once the furniture is auctioned off to different owners, the two men must track down that single chair across a sprawling country. Each episode is a fresh encounter with another shady character, from a scheming priest to a village of petty opportunists, as the duo bickers, bluffs, and improvises their way forward. Set in the late 1920s Soviet Union during the New Economic Policy, the series balances broad physical comedy with a sharp satirical eye on profiteering and bureaucracy. The tone is breezy and wry, warm despite its cynicism, with a playful narrator guiding the story. Fans of The Golden Calf, The Great Dictator and Monty Python and the Holy Grail will find resonance in its picaresque humor and its portrait of a society hungry for money and status.

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