Yolki (Russian: Ёлки, Christmas Trees; also known as Six Degrees of Celebration) is a comedy film franchise directed by Timur Bekmambetov. It currently includes seven full-length films (the first one having aired in 2010 and the last in 2018) and a 2015 spin-off. Each film’s plot is a Hyperlink Story that takes place on New Year’s Eve in several Russian cities (occasionally, other countries are featured as well). There is always some central problem that all the characters help solve, sometimes unwittingly. Many of the characters appear in several films of the series.
Yolki is the most successful live-action Russian franchise.
The films contain examples of:
- As Himself: Several Real Life celebrities (including the then-President Dmitry Medvedev in the first film) appear as themselves.
- The Atoner: Igor destroyed his cousin’s romantic relationship forty years earlier, and he eventually decides to be the one to mend it. He succeeds.
- Belly-Scraping Flight: The damaged plane in Yolki 2 just barely manages it over the forest and to the runway.
- Crying Wolf: Andrey’s grandfather in Yolki 2 watches over a closed airbase and is certain that it will be needed again. Andrey needs to get to the staff phone to call his girlfriend and distracts his grandfather from it by shouting that a plane is landing. Then, of course, there comes a real plane.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: In Yolki 2, both Aslan and Alyona have this problem. Aslan’s father has arranged a marriage for Aslan with a girl the latter has never even met, while Alyona’s father is a Politically Incorrect Hero who mistrusts Aslan because of his Chechen origins.
- Disposable Fiancé: In Yolki 2, François for Olya (Borya's girlfriend). He is a complete bore, so it is obvious from the start.
- Fan Boy: Pashka has an enormous crush on Vera Brezhneva
. She is fond of him, and they keep in touch. - Heel–Face Turn: Well, it is a New Year’s Eve comedy. To name just a few:
- Lyoha, a thief, decides to change after he reunites with his girlfriend and rescues a supermarket from burglars.
- Igor is a selfish jerk who gradually realizes that everyone around him is happy and celebrating and he is completely alone and miserable, and while everyone loves his public image, nobody at all cares about his real self.
- Historical Domain Character: Feodor Chaliapin makes an appearance in Yolki 1914.
- Love Overrides the Law: In the second film, two characters cause a deputy's Mercedes to collide with a bath and block an entire street. One of them explains that his girlfriend is waiting for them (they were bringing the bath to her grandmother), and everyone involved (including the deputy) convinces the police to let them go scot-free.
- Mock Millionaire: In the first film, Misha is an ordinary student living on campus in Kazan who pretends to be a fabulously rich guy living in Santiago de Cuba to impress his wealthy and well-connected Swiss girlfriend Lena whom he has met online. It turns out Lena is like this as well – she is no richer than Misha and lives in Kazan too.
- Odd Friendship: A non-romantic example of Uptight Loves Wild with Boris the serious businessman and Zhenya the mischievous actor.
- Oddball in the Series: Six of the films take place in the same continuity in the modern world, but Yolki 1914 is a historical film set in 1914.
- One-Steve Limit:
- Subverted with two women called Olga in the first film. Later, their sons also have the same name (Hilarity Ensues when their fathers accidentally land into an asylum and try to prove their wives and kids really are called the same).
- Subverted with Grigory Zemlyanikin in the second film. Grisha the skier is an extremely distant relative and a namesake of Grigory Zemlyanikin the pilot, so when one of the characters tries to tell Zemlyanikin his love interest is waiting for him, he finds the wrong guy.
- Orphanage of Love: The orphanage in Kaliningrad. The kids do squabble sometimes, but the staff are caring and kind.
- Serious Business: For Grisha and Dima, the question of ski vs. snowboard is top priority throughout the series.
- Villain Has a Point: Vera Brezhneva's manager Fyodor is a controlling jerk who, at one point, hacks her email account, but he says his job is to protect her from overly violent fans, and Pashka sometimes skates close to the line between normal fanboying and stalking.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Downplayed in the sense of "Jerkass With Good Publicity". Igor is an extremely successful politician whose campaign (under the slogan "I’m for the People and Proud of It") earns him people’s love, but really he is an Entitled Bastard.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Grisha and Dima always appear onscreen together and always spend most of the screentime bickering.
