The Glass Harmonica (Russian: Стеклянная гармоника, romanized: Steklyannaya Garmonika) is a 1968 Soviet animated short film directed by Andrei Khrzhanovsky.
The story begins with text stating: "Long ago a craftsman created a magical musical instrument, and called it: The Glass Harmonica.
The only one who doesn't follow the order is a young boy who picks up the dead rose, upon which it regains life and blooms.
The film then follows a man and woman who stole the hour hand from the clock tower back to their house, which is full of other random objects.
The man transforms into a rhinoceros and begins to charge at her when suddenly, a drum sounds from the town square and they rush towards it along with the rest of the townspeople.
They start to rise when the boy who picked up the fallen rose earlier returns as a grown man, playing the glass harmonica.
They begin to fly through the air, until they are about to reach the heavens, when suddenly the yellow devil appears and they fall back to the ground.
One can easily draw parallels between the yellow devil, an indifferent and powerful ruler who prevents his citizens from reaching their full potential by suppressing art and creativity while also causing those who oppose him to disappear, and the various regimes of the Soviet Union.
[4][1] It opens by stating: "Although the events of this film are of a fantastic character ... its authors would like to remind you of boundless greed, police terror ... the isolation and brutalization of humans in modern bourgeois society".