Konstantin Murzenko, known primarily as a screenwriter, has taken a stab at directing, and the result is encouraging, if not great. His new film "April" debuted in Moscow last week after a successful premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. Murzenko's most familiar piece of work was the script to Maxim Pezhemsky's 1997 crime comedy "Mama, Don't Grieve," which was rich in Russian thieves' cant.

"April" is Murzenko's debut as a director, and, once again, criminal themes dominate, but the approach to the story is radically different from your typical cheap shoot-'em-up of recent times. For those who disliked Alexei Balabanov's "Brother" films, this is the antidote.

Yevgeny Stychkin plays Petya, a petty criminal known on the street as "April" because, being born at the end of February in a leap year, his friends from the orphanage decided his birthday should be celebrated on April Fools Day. Having run afoul of the mob, he is coerced into taking on two targets on a local boss' hit list. The film also follows one of April's intended victims, Vova (Denis Burazgliyev), as he tries to wriggle his way out of underworld intrigues. Typecast chrome-dome Gosha Kutsenko plays April's other target, a fellow gangster who tries to get Vova out of his mess. The film juxtaposes the activities the characters until they meet near the end in a most unexpected fashion, leading to an equally unforeseen conclusion in a children's hospital ward where the gangsters have come to abduct babies for illegal adoption.

For a criminal comedy with a film-noir feel, the movie is surprisingly gentle in tone and outlook, and its humor works: It's genuinely funny, without being either cute or cynical.

The film isn't perfect. Burazgliyev's and Kutsenko's jargon-laden discussions of shady business are mundane and mostly unnecessary. The romance in the film is underdeveloped – we barely get a sense of April's rapport with Yekaterina (Renata Litvinova), a nurse on the verge of prostitution. However, despite being derivative in subject matter, the film is a cut above most recent Russian cinema expressly because of its unconventionally light touch.