Well, I watched this movie many times so I think I can better explain what it is all about. Olya the girl in the beginning of the movie features her personal weaknesses, or bad habits, or let's call it sins. She is craving for grandma's jam so much, that she discards grandma's word no to touch the jam, and breaks the can as she tries to eat some. Also Olya is recreant, lazy, irresponsible, sweet-tooth to the extent of forgetting about more important things. In other words Olya features a number of bad habits typical for children of her age. And through possession of these bad habits she becomes attracted to the fairy-tale surreal world of "Kingdom of crooked mirrors" which in fact is some kind of anti-world where all inhabitants bear reversed names to be read backwards to understand the true nature of the character. The kingdom is ruled by bizarre and evil characters featuring different animals like Parrot, Adder, Falcon, Toad (all shall be read backwards), and in fact represent a fake and gullish monarch Parrot, and three ruthless, cunning and power loathing tycoons: Toad, Adder and Falcon, who really rule the Kingdom. Played by people dressed and made up accordingly. In order to cement their power over the Kingdom they lean upon what probably should be described as total and systematic lying, or people's mass misinformation, by producing and disseminating only crooked mirrors. For this end they arrested the mirror-maker Friend who refused to produce crooked mirrors. So the CMK world represents where do Olya's weaknesses or bad habits would finally take her if not eradicated timely and properly. During her trip in the Kingdom Olya is accompanied by her mirror twin Yalio, who has no bad habits, but acts accordingly to her age. The main goal is to free the mirror-maker Friend from the Death Tower, which means the end of the Kingdom of Crooked mirrors. Olya has to overcome her own weaknesses and bad habits on her way to the goal, otherwise the ruling of Adder, Falcon, and Toad will never end. It is important to understand that in the USSR production of movies was controlled by Art councils, so the final product is kinda a balance between the movie director and Art council, therefore something resembling propaganda can sometimes be expected. But if you understand the entire story and the plot, you will see that Kingdom is a materialization of one's bad habits taken to the logical absolute to show to kids how important is to take an active and firm position in life and to stick to the truth, that in adult life you will have to take an active position, you will have to distinguish your friends from enemies, and you will have to act accordingly. Well, from the point of view of Adder, Falcon, and Toad this must be a very dangerous propaganda.

Crazy child story that seems to mirror (cough, sorry, cough) "Alice in Wonderland" in some aspects, but that also seems to be a critic of the ones on the other side back on that era (the end of the movie says it all, with the woman looking at the camera and sending a very clear message to the viewer), "Korolevstvo krivykh zerkal" is quite the strange movie.The story goes around Olya, who gets home after watching a movie she shouldn't have, loses the flat's key, gets scared because of some boys and ends breaking a plums jar. Just after breaking the jar, she discovers she has a 'mirror' self on the other side of the... mirror (yes, I know...). She crosses and we get Olya and Alyo, who join forces to search for their cats and get entangled with the politics of the mirror world's kingdom, a plot to kill the king, trying to save a boy who is going to be killed because he is making 'straight' instead of 'crooked' mirrors... All in quite the psychedelic world.The story is very simple to follow (even if the developments are quite arbitrary), but it is enjoyable enough, with all the twisted characters, silly adventures, and camp clothes and cheesy dialogue. It is original enough, and the acting and direction accompany the story quite well, making this "Korolevstvo krivykh zerkal" an interesting little curio.

A very knowledgeable online acquaintance recommended this film two years ago. A friend immediately watched it and has been, for the past two years, trying to convince me to watch it, as well.Receiving a seal of enthusiastic approval from two opinions I value and trust, it's something of an enigma as to why I've been so hesitant to watch the film. Especially when one considers my love for surrealism and general weirdness. Considering some of the films I've seen in the past two years and in doing so put ahead in priority over Kingdom… (Hostel? Intolerable Cruelty?), it's downright disgusting of me. But I've looked at myself in the mirror, as Grandma asks at the end of this precious Russian gem, and decided to break my bad habits.I loved this film. As soon as it was over {unfortunately after only around 70 minutes} I excitedly started this article and was ready to learn about the film. Unfortunately, things don't always go the way you'd like.There is sadly little discussion or evaluation of this strange Russian family film on the internet and the DVD itself offers only one special feature of note: a 5 minute talk by an actor in the film (Andrei Stapran) who spends 4 minutes bragging about the films he himself made {none of which are on IMDb, unfortunately} and the other minute making general statements like "Aleksandr Rou was a marvelous director!" No kidding.So I'm alone on this one and, as a freshmen in the high school of serious film consideration and criticism, I can only offer small observations of a questionable nature. But even Ebert has had to retract statements he made about films in his foolish youth. Such is life, they say.Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors bears unavoidable similarities to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; a little girl suddenly finds herself in a strange world with ruthless royalty who aren't shy when it comes to executions. There's also a cat, but it functions more like Alice's cat Dinah than the Cheshire Cat.And though it may be due to the fact I saw a theatre screening of it just two days before watching this, Kingdom… also seems to bear resemblance to Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz. While Kingdom… lacks the production values of Hollywood's masterpiece of surreal family entertainment, it's as creative in concepts and the limitations in set and costume design only stamp it with the strange and unexplainable vibes I get when watching the films of Jan Svankmajer, as well as my only experience with Jaromil Jires {Valerie and Her Week of Wonders…which is likely the kind of film that children raised on this will turn to when they are adults.} Interestingly, watching the film today, even the most politically apathetic persons {like myself} can't help but notice how much it functions like a criticism of the fella in charge. Well, you be the judge: the king in the kingdom of crooked mirrors is incredibly stupid and everyone in the kingdom knows it. He's also not really in charge – he does what the rich citizens of the kingdom tell him to do. Yeah.That is one of the reasons I was excited in researching this film; to uncover some knowledge of the Russian leadership at the time; a figure who, I had to assume, was like the George W. Bush of his time – being the butt of a seemingly never-ending line of jokes about his intellectual shortcomings by the Jay Lenos and Saturday Night Lives of the time.Unfortunately, I uncovered nothing. Perhaps it is all the better. I've never been impressed by Bush jokes (presidents are too easy a target for interchangeable jokes, be it about sex or stupidity). So to uncover that King Torrap {parrot spelled backwards…because this is a world of mirrors} is, in fact, a direct criticism of one person instead of a more universal questioning of anyone in charge or – what the hell – just an opportunity to have a farcical character with a parrot-esquire beak for a nose would have only let me down, ultimately.I should also point out his cowering when facing mean-faced people he fears reminded me of the king of Wonderland in the Disney production, who seems terrified of his wife, who indeed wears the pants in that kingdom.But to get to a more typical plot breakdown of the film (finally, you say), a little girl named Olya returning from peaking into a film which children under 16 are not allowed to see comes home to her grandma, realizing she has lost the key to their flat. The grandma scorns her carelessness and sets out to fetch her a replacement key. Meanwhile, Olya breaks into the jam cabinet and splits a jar with her cat while her overlooking parrot threatens to tell on her unless she shares the goods – which she does not do.When she accidentally drops the jar, the mirror in her house begins to talk to her (perhaps this was grandma's special jar of jam with a few extra ingredients…), and she follows her cat into the mirror where she meets her reflection Aylo.From there, the two embark on a strange journey after witnessing a youth being sent to the aptly named Death Tower for rebelling and making straight mirrors so that people can see the truth instead of being fooled into believing the lies of the crooked mirrors he has been enslaved to make (which make the old look young and vice versa).They encounter several strange characters with names like Daot (toad spelled backwards; the character himself looks like a toad) and so on as they attempt to free their friend (named Dneirf, of course!) As Watson Pritchard at Something Weird Video put it, this film "…at times (resembles) a live-action cartoon from hell." That simple statement couldn't be truer.

Certain films leave a lasting impression, even though you cannot explain why. This film is dated and the quality of the special effects is questionable. Nonetheless, this movie has a lot of charm. It is actually quite exciting (my little cousins love it) and fun to watch.