Nikita Mixalkov's 1999 film Sibirskij cirjul'nik (The Barber of Siberia) attempts to enlist traditional associations with Russian culture and literature to enrich his film and enhance its appeal to a Western audience. In particular, he uses scenes of a maslennica celebration to coopt the energy and attraction inherent in the carnival. But, using a Baxtinian framework for the interpretation of carnival, as applied to film theory by theorist Robert Stam (Subversive Pleasures: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism, and Film [Johns Hopkins Press, 1989]), I argue that Mixalkov's antiseptic version of carnival is designed to appeal to Western stereotypes of Russian excess and indulgence. This paper investigates the cleaned-up kitsch of Mixalkov's film and compares it with other depictions of the spirit of carnival in recent Russian films, most notably Yurij Mamin's 1995 film, Okno v Parizh (Window to Paris).