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This glorious excursion into Technicolor fantasy (with cartoon elements) is one of the most beautiful in the rich strain of Russian cinematic fantasy, and it is also very true to the spirit of the Russian/Ukrainian master Nikolai Gogol. The tale of a blacksmith (Aleksandr Khvylya) from a darkened village sent on an endless quest on Christmas Eve by his beloved Oksana (L. Myznikova), ending in St. Petersburg and with a stop along the way for a conference with the devil, has been filmed a few times throughout Russian film history, but never with so much charm and such a rich feeling for the satiric, folkloric power of the source material. A classic.
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