One of the most popular Soviet movies of all time, White Sun of the Desert is a true cult classic. It follows a Red Army soldier, Sukhov, trying to return home from Central Asia in the Russian Civil War. But Sukhov is instead assigned the task of guarding the harem of a guerrilla leader, leading to a series of escalating adventures as the task proves to be more difficult than he imagined. A charming and much-quoted piece of Soviet popular culture.
A strange movie and one I wasn't particularly a fan of, It's meditative and heavy on dialogue, despite its leanings towards the 'Western', but I wouldn't say there's anything about it that is particularly profound or worth the fame it has in Russia. Perhaps I missed something about the difference between the attitudes of revolutionaries and 'Russian Asians'. In any case, the Soviet cosmonauts used to watch it before launching. See what you think!