Pray for the conversion of Russia by all means, but not for its conversion from the ancient art of clowning. As Slava Polunin has shown us in the past, and as Derevo now show us again, it has survived there, perhaps as much because it expresses human helplessness like nothing else, as because the Communist ethos protected traditional art forms.

We are used to male clowns - man is Everyman. Once centres on the romantic and erotic hopes of a female Pierrot, her white face resting numbly on her hands as she waits for a Prince to walk into her restaurant. Words cannot express the delicacy of Elena Iarovaia's performance - her quivering desperation, her modest incandescence as she is escorted, finally, down the aisle.

But not before director Anton Adassinski has peopled a baroque canvas with suitors. As the clowning influence resonated in early film, film then resonates again in clowning; Adassinski plays a typical "Dottor della peste" figure from Commedia dell'Arte, his red, protuberant nose sadly telling us that all is not well down below; Tatiana Khabarova is a brilliant male lead, a slightly sinister, aristocratic matinee idol. With Adam Janeczko and Nils Dumcke they shift the kaleidoscope to present images hinting at Valentino, Dracula, King Kong, Snow White and Saint Sebastian, to mention but a few, in that sad whirl of stereotypes that is human desire.

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