Based on a poem by Pushkin, Ptushko's final film as director follows the epic adventures of Ruslan as he struggles to recover the feisty, resourceful bride kidnapped on their wedding night by the sorcerer Tchernomor. A mad, enchanted combination of The Wizard of Oz, Die Nibelungenlied, and The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T., Ruslan and Ludmila is quite possibly Ptushko's greatest masterpiece, an epic two-part fantasy packed with surreal characters-an impish sorcerer with a fifty-foot beard, a demonic witch-and jawdropping set-pieces-the sorcerer's shimmering crystal palace, tormented figures chained inside a cavern, a decapitated giant's head rising up like an Easter Island statue.