A Very Old Story
movie

Released December 31, 1968
Overview
Based on the famous fairytale "The Tinderbox" by Hans Christian Andersen. The main character of the film is a puppeteer who lives in a poor and gray world. He composes a fairy tale in which he himself, in the guise of a brave soldier, finds a flint and is helped by a kind wizard. The soldier falls in love with a spoiled, capricious princess who, as befits a princess, poses riddles to her numerous suitors. Her father, the king, is eager to see the soldier as her husband, as he believes the soldier has a great deal of gold. In the fairy tale, everything ends well, but in real life, not so much. "But life is not a fairy tale," his beloved girl says to him as she bids him farewell.
Cast

Oleg Dal
as
Soldier / Puppet master

Marina Neyolova
as
Princess / innkeeper's daughter

Vladimir Etush
as
King / Innkeeper

Georgiy Vitsin
as
good wizard

Vera Titova
as
witch / davil's grandmother

Viktor Perevalov
as
Prince-chimney sweep

Georgiy Shtil
as
Eastern Prince

Anatoly Korolkevich
as
doorman

Georgi Georgiu
as
"thick"

Lev Lemke
as
"thin"

Igor Dmitriev

Boris Lyoskin
Crew

Nadezhda Kosheverova
as
Director

Hans Christian Andersen
as
Novel
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Konstantin Ryzhov
as
Director of Photography

Marina Azizyan
as
Production Design

Igor Vuskovich
as
Production Design

Andrey Petrov
as
Original Music Composer
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Valentina Mironova
as
Editor
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K. Polukhin
as
Camera Operator
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Anna Tubenshlyak
as
Second Unit Director
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Igor Belsky
as
Choreographer

Aleksandr Galich
as
Lyricist
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Anatoli Badkhen
as
Conductor