Cucaracha (film)

The scene of the film is pre-war Tbilisi . The narrator and participant in the film named Tamaz at the described time there are no twelve more; he is the alter ego of the author, who at the time of writing the story is already over fifty.

All that will be discussed below are events that I myself witnessed, about which we became aware of rumors leaked from the police and which at one time excited the entire population of our quarter.

A new district policeman, junior lieutenant Georgy Tushurashvili, nicknamed "Kukaracha" (the film does not reveal the origin of the nickname), a participant in the Soviet-Finnish war, appears in the quarter. As a district inspector, he monitors the behavior of children and adolescents in the quarter entrusted to him and takes patronage over Thomas, helping his mother in his upbringing. Despite the initial mistrust (watching the teenagers, Cukaracha catches them for fish poisoning in the river, smoking and theft), over time, children - and especially Tomaz and his mother - become imbued with respect and trust in the local policeman.

Soon, the head of Kurarachi, Major David Sabashvili, instructs him to interrogate the pharmacy employee Inga Laliashvili, who is rumored to be the mistress of a certain Murtalo, a dangerous thief and killer. At the interrogation, the rumors are confirmed, however, in love with Inga Kukaracha decides to save the girl intimidated by the bandit by all means.

Upon learning that Murtalo was involved in a robbery of a jewelry store in Taganrog , Kukaracha arrests him in Inga’s apartment. Murtalo, taken by surprise, decides that Inga handed him over to the police and attacks her, but Kukaracha disarms the bandit. The policeman is going to take the prisoner away, but the girl begs him to let Murtalo go, believing that he can escape and kill her, or ask one of his accomplices to do it. Hesitating, Kukaracha still frees Murtalo, and he himself informs Sabashvili of his flight and goes to the guardhouse .

After his release, Kukarach begins to meet with Inga, until the news of his assassination spreads around the block. The killer - Murtalo - manages to escape, but he is caught and tried, and Kukaracha soon dies of his wounds. At the trial, Inga talks about what happened - Murtalo took Kukarachu by surprise, taking his weapon away; the policeman offers the bandit to either voluntarily surrender or disperse without bloodshed, but Murtalo kills Kukarachu, hoping that in case of capture he will not be shot for murder on the grounds of jealousy. In the courtroom, Inga tries to kill the former lover by shooting him seven times with a pistol, but misses. Murtalo falls into hysteria - execution for the murder of a policeman is inevitable.

The narrator further reports that soon everyone forgets what happened, because the next day, June 22, 1941, the war begins ; this story is remembered only once, when in 1943 from the front came a certificate of death of the nurse Inga Amiranovna Laliashvili.

• Levan Uchaneyshvili - Kukaracha (aka district inspector Georgy Tushurashvili)
• Ninel Chankvetadze - Inga
• Zaza Kolelishvili - Murtalo
• Marina Janashia - Anna Ivanovna
• Lado Tatishvili - Tamaz
• Givi Tohadze
• Dudukhan Tserodze
• D. Kapanadze
• Tamaz Tolorai - seller of watermelons and melons
• George Kavtaradze

• V. Shamshurin - dubbing director
• A. Bychkova - dubbing sound engineer

Roles duplicate:

• S. Zakharov - Cucaracha
• M. Dyuzheva - Inga
• V. Spiridonov - Murtalo
• L. Danilina - Anna Ivanovna
• Vasya Starostin - Tamaz
• V. Kovalkov
• N. Zorskaya
• T. Semina
• V. Bryleev
• Mikhail Kozakov - reads text from the author

The film is dubbed at the Mosfilm film studio.

• 1983 - XVI All-Union Film Festival ( Leningrad ) in the section of feature films: prize for the film "Cucaracha" in the nomination "For the on-screen embodiment of a literary work" ^[1] .