The article proposes an analysis of two key episodes of the film by Yakov Segel “Farewell, doves!” (1960). These episodes are connected with one of the most recognizable plots of official Soviet ideology, namely, with the plot of the struggle against the “remnants of capitalism”. The originality of the approach to this plot in these episodes lies in the fact that its development is consistently associated with the concept of the human “generic essence”. More precisely, it poses the philosophical problem of how this “generic essence” can be really, and not only illusory, appropriated under conditions of communist construction. However, in these episodes, this plot receives a non-standard interpretation primarily due to the form of film narration, built on the use of such techniques as image without sound and sound without image. The automatism of the ideological apparatus is thereby interrupted, and its message may be called into question.