The main character in writer and director Radu Mihaileanu’s film ‘The Concert’, Andre Simonovich Filipov, had been the renowned conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra when some thirty years ago, during the Communist period, he was fired for hiring Jewish musicians.

The film starts in the present time with Filipov working as a cleaner at the Bolshoi. He comes across a fax from the Chatelet Theatre in Paris inviting the Bolshoi to come and perform a concert tour. In a move somewhere between insanity and genius, Filipov, on behalf of the Bolshoi, responds in the affirmative. The booking is arranged, and Filipov brings together a group of Jewish and Gypsy musicians to form his Bolshoi orchestra. The thing that Filipov is most looking forward to is playing his favourite piece of music again, Tchaikovsky’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major. He is still haunted by memories of the Communists, all those years ago, storming the stage and breaking his baton during a performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto.

Above all, Mihaileanu’s film just has so much heart! One comes out of the movie feeling emotionally on such a high. The final scene, with the combination of the resolution of the intricate, poignant plot, and Tchaikovsky’s music is to die for! ‘The Concert’ is always entertaining with its astute observations of all the quirky characters that Filipov brings together to form his orchestra. The film charts the musicians classic comic behaviour from when they land in Paris to when the concert takes place, especially in the way that they try and wheel and deal, so that they go back to poor Russia with a bit more money in their pockets. ‘The Concert’ also has a neat way with suspense and with things being a bit unpredictable.

Have you got the picture?! If you didn’t see this film on general release, try and catch it on dvd. This concert is well worth seeing!