Deaf Crocodile and Vinegar Syndrome have announced that they will be releasing director Karen Shakhnazarov’s surreal, Kafkaesque satire Zerograd (Zero City) on Blu-Ray on October 25, 2022. This 1988 film will be available for the first time ever on Blu-ray in North America in a stunning new 2K restoration from Mosfilm. Get the details below!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trD6eAbB7m8]
Synopsis: Part Kafka, part Agatha Christie and part Monty Python, director Karen Shakhnazarov’s surreal satire of Communism follows an Everyman engineer named Varakin (Leonid Filatov) who arrives in a remote city where nothing quite makes sense, but everyone acts as if it does. He’s quickly drawn into the investigation of the suicide (or possibly murder?) of a local restaurant chef, Nikolaev – who may (or may not) be Varakin’s missing father. The more complex and absurdist the mystery becomes, the more poignant and plaintive Varakin’s predicament – “I have to get back to Moscow,” he pleads to no avail. Along the way we’re treated to a bizarre and wonderful sideshow of non sequiturs out of a Wes Anderson film, including an underground museum filled with a thousand years of real and imagined Russian history (“Here’s the pistol with which Urusov shot the False Dimitry II.”) Frozen in time, frozen far beneath the surface, the waxwork figures are strangely beautiful and forlorn, like Shakhnazarov’s marvelous and enigmatic satire of Soviet bureaucracy. With music by the great Eduard Artemyev (SOLARIS, STALKER).
“ZEROGRAD is such a fascinating mix of genres: part mystery, part science fiction, part political satire, part surreal comedy,” says Deaf Crocodile Films Co-Founder and Head of Distribution Dennis Bartok. “When the film was released in 1988, the Soviet Union was only three years away from breaking up — and it’s impossible not to look at ZEROGRAD as a metaphor for the U.S.S.R. in its last stages, with Leonid Filatov’s brilliant, baleful performance as the Everyman engineer who gets caught in the Moebius strip of Zero City, unable to go backwards to Moscow and unable to go forwards. Just like the Soviet Union itself at that point in history.”
EXCLUSIVE BONUS FEATURES
- Region A Blu-ray
- New 2K restoration from the original 35mm picture and sound elements by Mosfilm
- New video interview with director/co-writer Karen Shakhnazarov, moderated by Dennis Bartok of Deaf Crocodile Films
- New commentary track by film journalist Samm Deighan (Diabolique magazine, Daughters of Darkness podcast)
- New booklet essay by filmmaker, writer, punk musician and genre expert Chris D (The Flesh Eaters; author of Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film)
- English subtitles
Before we let you go, we have officially launched our merch store! Check out all of our amazing apparel when you click here and type in GVN15 at checkout for a 15% discount!
Make sure to check out our podcasts each week including Geek Vibes Live, Top 10 with Tia, Wrestling Geeks Alliance and more! For major deals and money off on Amazon, make sure to use our affiliate link!
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
![‘Swiped’ Review – A Sharp Biopic On Whitney Wolfe Herd And Sexism In Tech [TIFF 2025]](https://cdn.geekvibesnation.com/wp-media-folder-geek-vibes-nation/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/g_20cs_swiped_still_1_e58fe01b-300x168.jpeg "‘Swiped’ Review – A Sharp Biopic On Whitney Wolfe Herd And Sexism In Tech [TIFF 2025]")
