The 2004 Russian film, "Mars". It was very reminiscent of Jeunet's "Amelie" crossed with some of David Lynch's deftly weird touches.
From Wikipedia:
"
Mars (
Russian: Марс) is a 2004
Russian film, directed and written by
Anna Melikian. Set in a small Russian city of Mars, the film tells the story of a professional
boxer who has run away from his life to a small Russian town on the coast of the
Black Sea.The story contains elements of
surrealism and
magical realism. The town's main industry is the manufacture of
plush toys, which function as a local currency. The boxer is
color blind; his color blindness is portrayed, for example, by a profusion of blue apples.
The city of Mars was formerly called
Marks:
Марс as opposed to
Маркс, the name change being effected by removing one letter from the roof of the railway station."
I was sent a copy of the film by the Russian distributors after seeing it at the EIFF and emailing them to ask whether they planned a general UK release; I'm not sure whether or not it's ever been made available to the UK market, so I may have a rarity on my hands!
