A tip for viewing
I'm a huge fan of this recently deceased Russian director, but I knew before seeing this that it would probably be near-incoherent plotwise, because his specialty is a particularly kind of flavorful, atmospheric chaos...NOT narrative clarity. So I read the early 1960s novel (easily available in English translation) first. It's not all that easy to follow, either, but it will give you a basic roadmap through what would probably otherwise seem an utterly bewilderingly if vivid medieval fantasia.
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