Ghost of a flea

In a room redolent of dried fish, stale beer and pipe tobacco, men from the depressed outskirts of St. Petersburg, Russia, crowd around a television. They watch intently as an actor dressed in a shirtfront and double-breasted coat beats people over the head with a cane, a scene they’ve viewed dozens of times. The film, released in 1990, is Yuri Mamin’s Bakenbardy (Sideburns).

A small provincial town is home to two rival teenage gangs, one devoted to loose living and punk music and the other a collection of narrow-minded bodybuilders obsessed with order and convinced of their own moral rectitude. However, this cosy state of affairs is upset by the arrival of two strangers dressed like Pushkin, the famous early 19th century Russian poet, who proceed to found their own organisation, dedicated ostensibly to the memory of the great writer and the "salvation of Russia". Gradually, they begin to assume control of the town...