About the film
Alika, a young nurse, arrives in a half-empty Crimean resort in winter with her older lover Krymov, a smooth and dangerous black-market boss. There she meets Bananan, a strange, kind boy who plays in an underground rock band.
Love, crime and a parallel story about the murder of Tsar Paul I are woven together with the music and fashion of Soviet underground culture.
Assa became a symbol of perestroika. Its final scene, with Viktor Tsoi singing 'We Want Changes!', is one of the most famous moments in Russian film.
Did you know?
- The film ends with Viktor Tsoi and his band Kino performing 'We Want Changes!'.
- Sergei 'Afrika' Bugaev, who plays Bananan, was a real artist of the Leningrad underground.
- Filmmaker Stanislav Govorukhin plays the gangster Krymov.
