Yefim Gamburg’s Passion of Spies: Parody in Soviet Animation

Yefim Gamburg is a Soviet animation director whose filmography includes fairytale adaptations, musicals, and satirical shorts. However, what makes him stand out from the other Soviet animators is his parodies. While parodies were rare in Soviet animation, Yefim Gamburg directed three films that spoof foreign and domestic cinema. This study looks closely at the first of those three, Passion of Spies (Shpionskie Strasti, 1967), a parody of spy films, and analyzes how it transforms its target text, while elaborating on a connection between parody and satire within the film.