Filine.

I watched Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel (see this post) with great pleasure; not only is it well made (and surprisingly avant-garde for the Soviet Union of the Brezhnev era), but it’s in Estonian, which is fun. But not all of it! At one point our hero, Inspector Glebsky, gets an anonymous note in French that warns him of “un terroriste dangereux, connu par le surnom Filine.” The subtitle called him Owl, which puzzled me; when I checked the Russian text of the Strugatsky novel the movie is based on, I found the note read thus: «Господина инспектора Глебски извещают, что в отеле находится в настоящее время под именем Хинкус опасный гангстер, маньяк и садист, известный в преступных кругах под кличкой Филин. Он вооружен и грозит смертью одному из клиентов отеля. Господина инспектора убедительно просят принять какие-нибудь меры». In the translation by Josh Billings: “MISTER INSPECTOR GLEBSKY: PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT A DANGEROUS GANGSTER, SADIST AND MANIAC IS CURRENTLY STAYING AT THE INN UNDER…