''Khottabych'' (, ''Hottabych'') is a 2006

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

film by STV Film Company. It is based on the novel '' The Copper Jar of Old Khottabych'' by Sergey Oblomov, and uses the title character,

genie GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service provider, online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS Inc., GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around ...

Khottabych, created by Soviet writer Lazar Lagin for his children's book and movie '' Old Khottabych'' (1956). The film has the screen name ''K}{OTT@B\)CH'', underscoring the film's Internet motif. It opened in theaters on 10 August 2006 at Karoprokat.

Plot

A youth named Gena is a

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...

hooked on

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

s and the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. His girlfriend is fed up with him, because he pays so little attention to her and so much to his electronic exploits, such as defacing the www.microsoft.com web site. Attempting to mend his relationship with his girlfriend, he buys an ancient jar from an Internet-

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

and finds a

residing in it. Per the fairy-tale tradition, he is offered three wishes. First, the genie, named Hottabych by Gena, prints a huge number of US$100

banknote A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...

s. Unfortunately Hottabych is not familiar with modern paper, and the banknotes are printed on

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...

. This later sets off a chain of events leading back to Gena. Unbeknownst to him, the local mafia is aware of Gena's skills and is intent on forcing him to gain entrance to bank computers. Furthermore, the Russian and American police forces are attempting to locate him because of his recent activity on the Internet. The Americans send a female hacker named Annie to trick Gena into revealing himself, which he does. After a rocky start to their relationship, romance ensues. Things are further complicated by an evil genie named

Shaitan Iblis (), alternatively known as Eblīs, also known as Shaitan, is the leader of the devils () in Islam. According to the Quran, Iblis was thrown out of heaven after refusing to prostrate himself before Adam. He is often compared to the Chri ...

ych who is also hunting for the jar, in an attempt to collect all 13 genie-vessels and gain dominion over Earth, so no dreams may be ever fulfilled (he names this "The Greatest Worldwide Bummer"). After Hottabych grants Gena's final wish, he decides to become a mortal man and is subsequently killed by Shaitanych. Left with nothing but a strand of Hottabych's hair, Gena and Annie decode his DNA and upload the

binary Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two values (0 and 1) for each digit * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical op ...

code into the Internet, where a final battle takes place between Hottabych and Shaitanych.

Cast

* Khottabych as Vladimir Tolokonnikov * Gena as Marius Jampolskis * Annie as Līva Krūmiņa * Shaytanych as Mark Geykhman * Lena as Julia Paranova * * Alisa Sezeneova as Mila Lipner * Venick as Grigory Skryapnik * Oleg as Alexander Ovchinnikov * Alexander as

Yuriy Dumchev Yuriy Eduardovich Dumchev (; 5 August 1958 – 10 February 2016) was a Russian track and field athlete for the Soviet Union, who set the world record in the men's discus throw on 29 May 1983 with a distance of 71.86 metres. He was born in Rossosh. ...

* * Employees of FSB Konstantin Spassky and Rostislav Krokhin * *

Features

* The film features modern youth

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

, including

IRC IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat ...

and the computer game

Counter-Strike ''Counter-Strike'' (''CS'') is a series of multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video games, in which opposing teams attempt to complete various objectives. The series began on Windows in 1999 with the release of the first game, '' Counte ...

Music score, lyrics, songs

* "Pochuty", "Super-puper", "Beta-karotin", "Gajki s Jamajki" by

Boombox A boombox is a transistorized portable music player featuring one or two cassette tape players/recorders and AM/FM radio, generally with a carrying handle. Beginning in the mid-1990s, a CD player was often included. Sound is delivered thro ...

music group; * "Spionskaya" - Spy theme music by Dmytro Shurov; * "The Number" by Psoy Korolenko; * "Cloun" written by T. Kosonen, A. Korvumak, T. Leppanen; performed by Aavikko; * "Vladimirskij central" by

Mikhail Krug Mikhail Vladimirovich Vorobyov (), known professionally as Mikhail Krug (aka Michael the Circle) (), was a Russian singer. Krug was one of the most popular singers of the style of music known as ''blatnaya pesnya'' or Russian chanson, a genre of ...

; * "Amerika" by Mnogotochie; * "Sljuna", "Sljuna", "Shajtan Shajtanych" by Uratsakidogi; * "Morjak" by Artjom Rukavichkin; * "Kukla kolduna" by Korol' i Shut.

Trivia

* The car used by the main characters is a modified Pobeda M20. It was sold on Internet auctio
Molotok.ru
for $10,000. * The off-screen voice is

Dmitry Puchkov Dmitry Yuryevich Puchkov (; born August 2, 1961), also known as Goblin (), is a Russian media personality most known for his English-to-Russian film and video game translations as well as his Oper.ru web blog and, from 2008 until 2022, his epo ...

known as Goblin. * Filmed at Russian State Genetic Scientific Research Institute. The device used by Gena is really used in the process of

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

analysis. * In the scene shot at the

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...

, extras dressed up as Russian police officers stood around the perimeter of the set to prevent strangers from entering it. * In the episode where Gena is beaten by police officers, one of them missed actor Jampolskis' protective wear and hit actor with all his might. * The movie uses

nmap Nmap (Network Mapper) is a network scanner created by Gordon Lyon (also known by his pseudonym ''Fyodor Vaskovich''). Nmap is used to discover hosts and services on a computer network by sending packets and analyzing the responses. Nmap pro ...

Video release

The film was released by Soyuz Video () on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in August 2006 without subtitles, and also on

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

DVD-editions by Karoprokat with subtitles and the trailer of the film. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, it was released on

and

without subtitles and with English simultaneous interpretation on system

NTSC NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

in September. The aspect ratio of the movie is 16:9 (1.85:1).

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, 0466043
Trailer
an
Screenshots
2006 films 2000s fantasy comedy films 2000s Russian films 2000s Russian-language films Films based on Russian novels Russian fantasy comedy films Russian science fiction comedy films Russian-language science fiction comedy films