About the film
Afanasy 'Afonya' Borshchov is a housing-office plumber who fixes taps for a bottle and forgets about them the next day. He is charming, lazy and surrounded by people who use him as much as he uses them.
Then he keeps running into Katya, a young nurse who has been quietly in love with him since school. Danelia, a master of sad comedy, lets the laughs fade into something more honest: a portrait of a man who wakes up one day and realises how empty his life has become.
Afonya was one of the biggest hits of the 1970s and remains a favourite for its gentle humour and its very real picture of provincial and Moscow life.
Did you know?
- More than 62 million people saw it in Soviet cinemas.
- The music was written by Moisei Weinberg, a composer better known for symphonies.
- The film's small parts are full of famous actors, including Yevgeny Leonov as a plasterer from Afonya's home village.
