I know of no other Russian animation director whose work is so heavily influenced by camels.

In my opinion, this story may originate from some principle in Zoroastrianism, which is the oldest religion in Asia. Most of the nations moving around the Silk Road had their own version. The following is a story that has long been in Vietnamese textbooks, but it originated from a story in a Ming Dynasty book.

THE STARFRUIT TREE

(The starfruit tree is a tropical plant native to Southeast Asia. The reason it is called "starfruit" because when cut crosswise, the fruit looks exactly like Solomon's star. Its wood has a mild fragrance and is quite good for firewood for heating. However, its leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds are all valuable remedies for summer diseases. Starfruit has two distinct flavors : sour and sweet ; but after eating, it leaves an astringent taste in the throat. Therefore, it has a very good anti-thirst effect. Perhaps because of its cooling properties, the star fruit tree is related to the story below)

There were two brothers whose parents inherited quite a rich farm and garden, but the older brother was greedy so he took all the wealth and only left the younger brother and his wife a small thatched roof at the edge of the village. In front of the hut there is only a starfruit tree full of fruit.

One day, a strange bird came to eat starfruits. This bird belongs to many versions : phoenix, eagle, crow. After the younger brother complained that if it ate all the starfruit, what would he use for his living capital, the bird spoke and said : If it eats a starfruit, it will give him a piece of gold, but the younger brother has to make a three-span bag for him to carry to get the gold. So the bird carried him to the desert island, got enough gold and became richer than his brother.

When the older brother learned that his younger brother was so rich, he persuaded his brother to exchange all his inheritance to receive a hut and a starfruit tree. Of course, we can understand his outcome : He listened to his wife and immediately made a twelve-span bag. On the way back home, the bird could not carry the older brother with his bag of gold, so it tilted its wings, causing him to fall into the sea and die.

This film is probably influenced by the poetics of The Frog Prince by the Brothers Grimm. Of course, it has been cleverly told to be suitable for children. Even in the lyrics, a part of what is called "the unspeakable" is expressed.

>>2
>Al issues later come fromhaving made the wrong choice, like there is not enough work, or personal greed ( More money can be made in...( different side of the country or different profession)
>It's all based on personal initiative, personal .choices,personal readjustments.
Yes, the counterpoint would be:
>>3
>In reality, young persons are always full of energy, but they often waste it on meaningless actions

The North American social and economic system is very complicated, and it places a lot of responsibility on young people to understand where and how they should apply themselves. They need to both focus on their education, and also on avoiding traps.

If you're smart academically but neglect the latter, you won't make it.

But for that matter, the man in this film could've expended more effort into finding a position for himself after graduation. Or married the young lady. It's not like he had entirely no choice.

>In the spoviet Union the state pays for the education,. and expects something in return.
People got to choose where they wanted to go, but had to have certain grades and pass an exam to get in. If they didn't, they had to go elsewhere. Basically the same thing exists in the West for the best universities. Except that the students also usually have to pay tuition. As for being forced to work somewhere for a period afterwards, some "free" coding bootcamps do the same.

>In thinking on the charaker of the Russian soul and the way it workss I based mijself on "Russian Spirituality and other essays"by Valentin Tomberg, that he wrote mostly in 1930, 1931. A Russian from St. Petersburg from Estonian Descent, that fled Russian in 1919. I have it as e book, so I can send it to anyone who wants.
Thanks, I found it; I'll try to take a look. Although I'm not sure I'll have enough time - I'm in such a rush these days...

This policy actually has its roots in colonialism, which is called as "to send on secondment/temporary assignment ; to attach ; to detach ; to second" (Chinese : 別派, Vietnamese : Biệt phái, "special" + "appoint / transfer / mobilize"). This policy was very popular in my country from the time of French protection until the 1980s.

Simply because, at that time, students did not have to pay tuition, even food was distributed through stamps, so students were also a type of civil servant and had to be controlled by the government. However, since the early 1990s, with the exception of pedagogy, all other levels and majors have had to pay tuition, and it has gradually increased each year. Therefore, this policy is no longer applied, but switched to a voluntary principle, meaning that anyone who applies to work in especially difficult areas will receive financial support. Although, let's take a look at these images : Touched by the image of the female teacher falling down and covered in mud on the way to the village.

I still highly appreciate this policy if it continues to be applied. In reality, young persons are always full of energy, but they often waste it on meaningless actions, even pretending to do charity to destroy the environment. As in my country, for more than a decade now, students from high-income families have often sought to polish their resumes to qualify to study abroad. As we all know, they participate in many activities, but did not contribute anything. The benefit of this policy is to guide young people to be noble, to control themselves to work usefully for the community. Moreover, it is an important catalyst to change customs in areas that are too backward.

Right now, we can compare the former Soviet Central Asian countries with Afghanistan. In the past, Afghanistan was the birthplace of many emperors, and could even be considered the origin of many Asian civilizations, but today they are mired in poverty, ignorance, and anti-civilization. Meanwhile, the five Central Asian countries have a very late history, but today all have very high human development indexes, relatively prosperous economies, and sports always rank very strongly throughout Asia. Thus, no matter what political measures the Soviet Union used, at least it had a very good impact on most of Central Asia. However, the place considered the "homeland" of Central Asian civilization is self-destructing.

First in general: People seldom end up in life where they think they will end up, or have panned to end up..
But the difference is this: In the US ( and I think that goes to for the canada where you live, altough I am not sure) You choose the education you want, but either your parents pay for it, or if you excell or come from some kind of minority where there is a fund for. And even those in general come from some sort of personal initiative. Al issues later come fromhaving made the wrong choice, like there is not enough work, or personal greed ( More money can be made in...( different side of the country or different profession) It's all based on personal initiative, personal .choices,personal readjustments. In the spoviet Union the state pays for the education,. and expects something in return. If you don't find a job yourself in the profession we educated you for, we'll appoint you to one according to our ( The state's) needs. Europe takes a middle position. You can choose the education you want, the stat will pay for it, but there timelimits for finishing it, and you end up whith a debt, because the eductation finance system is based on loans ( Allthough on a very soft terms. In thinking on the charaker of the Russian soul and the way it workss I based mijself on "Russian Spirituality and other essays"by Valentin Tomberg, that he wrote mostly in 1930, 1931. A Russian from St. Petersburg from Estonian Descent, that fled Russian in 1919. I have it as e book, so I can send it to anyone who wants.

This is the first time I've seen this film and I really love it. It is so beautifully done and captures the atmosphere of my youth so accurately.

Eus's initial description of this film included his opinion that this story speaks of how in the USSR and Russia...
>The need of the collective come before the individual.
>In the west the idea always is it's supposed to be the other way around.
...because a couple is split up when the man is sent somewhere far away for his job.

But I don't see it that way, because this wasn't a uniquely Soviet phenomenon - in the "West", the need for money often leads to the same situation. E.g. see Nina Paley's brilliant film Sita Sings the Blues. I think the general story is probably pretty relatable from many cultures, but this film really accurately captures an example of it from this particular time and place.

In the Soviet university system, those graduates who failed to find a position on their own were assigned one by the state for two years, and could be sent far away from home. But this wasn't something that happened to everyone, or even a majority of people in a class (in my mother's class, it was only a few). Nor would you be forcibly sent somewhere that would split you from a spouse (in this film, the couple weren't yet married).

On the other hand, graduates of the Western post-secondary education system often find out too late that positions in their field are only actually available for a small percentage of graduates. And then... well, you have the "choice" of being under-employed and poor, going back for another degree (hopefully the "right" one this time), or moving somewhere far away...

I liked the puppet-animated scenes (very well-done), but thought that the live-action scenes dragged and the story skipped over a number of key points, or just used intertitles to tell them (seemingly because it would've been hard to animate them), which made the film way more confusing than it should have been. It kind of feels like it wasn't finished.

Some things probably make more sense for Estonians who are already familiar with the story, but I cannot find a translation of it anywhere.

And what's with the Estonian-only dialogue but English-only text? It seems like only 50% of Estonians currently speak English, and probably less back when this was made...

For East Asians, who follow the lunar calendar (太陰曆), it is only December of the old year. The first day of the new year 2024 is February 10. However, the number 2024 is according to the new calendar, because if we follow the old calendar, it will now be more than 30 thousand years since Mesopotamia began to have a state. In fact, Asian people were very undeveloped in mathematics, so astronomical knowledge was completely learned from Persia but through India.

As we all know, the Middle East and Greater India are tropical areas, winter temperatures are even similar to summer, so the image of the moon is associated with night when the weather is cool. Lunar night is considered the most beautiful moment (read One Thousand and One Nights), while the sun is often associated with evil (this is also understandable). Indian legends often tell and retell events related to the war of the moon against the sun, but through everyday images. For example : The peacock princess was kidnapped by an evil eagle and was saved by the prince, one bright moonlit night - suddenly a demon came to swallow the moon (well, it is also possible that Hohol's The Night Before Christmas originated from this story)... Some ancient Chinese texts even tell of a king who shot 9/10 suns with his bow & arrow and then married a beauty ; but because of his one mistake, she was locked in a palace where was called as the moon. In the epic of an ethnic minority in the Central Highlands of my country, there is a tribal hero who wanders around the world hoping to capture the sun goddess as his wife. That is the reason that in modern slang, many men flatter their wife by calling as "my sun goddess" (nữ thần mặt trời của tôi).

The Vietnamese New Year festival is called as "Tết Nguyên Đán" (元旦節, "festival of the first day"). If we follow traditional conventions, we only have three days off to clean the house for the New Year and welcome guests. However, that is because in ancient times life was less busy and work did not force people to move much, so that was enough. After the Vietnam War ended, life was moving faster and faster with industrialization, so three days was not enough for persons from far away to reunite with their families, so initially the government allowed people to take a week off. However, as the 1990s and 2000s progressed, more and more persons joined the industrialization mechanism, even having to move by train and plane continuously, so the parliament proposed two weeks, plus including holidays (that is, if a New Year's Day coincides with a public holiday, the holiday will overlap with the following days). I haven't mentioned one problem, at a time when Covid is very serious, the New Year holiday schedule for children and civil servants is up to two months, making many persons feel very uncomfortable.

In the past, the New Year festival was an opportunity for families to reunite, worship ancestors, visit the graves of the deceased and visit other families to give blessings. However, now Vietnamese people are increasingly bored with it. In Southern Vietnam, where there is a strong influence of Catholic culture, the New Year festival exists almost exclusively in families of Chinese or Northern Vietnamese origin. In Northern Vietnam, in recent years, the Southern trend has also been spreading. Why so ? The problem is, industrial society has "invaded" respectful lifestyles. If I come to bless you, of course I will have to give your children [and your parents] a red envelope (hồng bao). Red is inherently the color of luck, but inside the envelope there must be money. When I was very young, the economy was still poor, so "celebrating the new age" (mừng tuổi) like that was only an estimate, but today it is a terrible burden. Such blessings have become a form of bribery, influence and even corruption. Because there have been officials prosecuted for receiving New Year's gifts worth millions of dollars. That's why the trend of "escape from the New Year festival" (trốn tết) is increasingly flourishing. Many families have chosen to travel during the first days of the year to avoid that terrible money cycle.

Every year-end, I see my parents preparing a new stack of money. It's simple because, the more relationships you have (relatives, friends, partners), the more money you have to spend ; furthermore, celebrating a new age with old money is highly undesirable. Therefore, every fall, banks issue new money for people to exchange old money. But Lunar New Year is just one of many "festivals" in a year, if you know about the gold-plated moon cakes every Mid-Autumn Festival. There is even another form of bribery, which is stuffing gold rings into festival cakes. The quality of the cake is very bad, but the filling is not bad at all, right ? All in all, that's why I love festivals from the West so much : Gentle, cozy and very fun.

I tried posting this film on several sites. Indeed, it has a very good effect, so unexpectedly good. Not only because the song is so famous, but the story is also very pure.