Hipsters

"A vibrant musical might not be what you'd expect from contemporary Russian cinema, but Valery Todorovsky's Hipsters is an Iron Curtain version of Swing Kids meets Hairspray, bursting with razzle, dazzle and, of course, rhythm. Christened with a name that stands for Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin, Communist youth Mels (Anton Shagin) is obviously primed to rebel. When he first lays eyes on Polly (Oksana Akinshina) in drab fifties Moscow, her bright-red lipstick, poodle skirt and flamboyant hipster friends shatter his dutiful, straight-laced outlook. Mels finds himself drawn into Polly's kaleidoscopic world, a fun-house-mirror version of the West where flashy candy-coloured outfits, jazz music and nights spent swing dancing in smoky, swanky clubs.