Despite the nice animation technique, I didn't like this one very much.

It seemed to intentionally be trying to pull down into the mud everything that's beautiful and beloved by those who love classical Russian culture (and the traditional West European culture that Russians like), but to me it just ended up reflecting the ugliness in its creators' heads instead (or in the environment around them?).

There was constant swearing, nudity and vulgarity throughout the film.

Some things that happen (spoilers ahead):

00:50 - the bears in Shishkin's famous painting get shot at right afterwards
01:18 - Shishkin himself was the killer, and wasn't actually an artist but a murderer and plagiarist
06:46 - symbolic (?) destruction of traditional European art of the sort still liked by Russians, and the owner made to look ridiculous
11:30 - circus owner who wants to visit Russia is drinking himself to death
13:36 - Russians are a formless, faceless crowd with no individuality or voice
14:10, 16:24, 19:27 - any Russian artist or entrepreneur immediately gets hauled off to Siberia for no reason
Also, a lot of famous Russian paintings (such as Natalia Goncharova's "Sunflowers") get thrown into the garbage throughout the film

I guess I'm filing this under the "these people were feeling really salty about Russians in general" category... ;)

I greatly preferred Riho Unt's 1987 film that's also on the site.