Description:

About a dreamer who was very tall and got in everyone's way. But one day his music awakened a sense of beauty in the townspeople. Based on a story by Soviet Jewish writer Ovsey Driz.

The original story was written in Yiddish. A Russian translation made by Genrikh Sapgir, who was the screenwriter for this film, can be read here. The story is quite a bit different from the film - the main character ends the tale not by awakening a sense of beauty in the townspeople, but by saving baby birds that had fallen out of their nests after a storm, and then finding happiness by spending the rest of his life telling them fairy tales, which then get remembered among the mothers and children of the townspeople as well.