Today from 18:00-21.00 hrs, the UvA Film Club will host their next screening in HVL/BuzzHouse’s Co-Working Space! This week's film is The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (Eldar Ryazanov, 1975), with an introduction by Evangeline Pushchin.

This week’s film is a Soviet classic, a romantic comedy directed by Eldar Ryazanov. The film emerged during the later Brezhnev era, a time marked by both cultural stagnation and a strong appetite for light, relatable entertainment on Soviet television. The story follows Zhenya Lukashin, a mild-mannered Moscow doctor who, after celebrating New Year’s Eve with friends at a bathhouse, becomes so inebriated that he is accidentally put on a plane to Leningrad. Half-asleep, Zhenya assumes he is still in Moscow, takes a taxi to what he believes is his own address, and manages to enter an apartment that looks exactly like his own. He is unaware that the real tenant, Nadya Sheveleva, will soon return home. The shock of discovering a strange man in her apartment sparks a chain of comedic and romantic developments. As the night unfolds, Zhenya and Nadya clash, connect, quarrel, and gradually reveal their frustrations with their own lives and relationships. Their interactions—by turns awkward, tender, and sharply funny—form the emotional core of the film.

Premiering on Soviet television on New Year’s Eve, the film quickly became a holiday tradition. Families all over the USSR would gather annually to watch its blend of humor, gentle satire, and heartfelt romance. Over time, The Irony of Fate has remained one of the most beloved and enduring films of the Soviet era, still broadcast every New Year and cherished for its warm nostalgia and commentary on everyday Soviet life.