Ok so here is what I can remember about this movie I saw as a kid.

There was a middle age man going on some sort of quest. He had a magic bag, and if someone asked "What's in the bag?" He would reply you, and they would be sucked inside.

Some where in the movie the hero learned to see death. If death was standing at the foot of a sick man's bed, the person would recover. If death was standing by their bedside they would die. The hero sucked death into the bag so that a child could live.

The movie wasw dark, and I think was made in the 80's.

Please help if you can.

Thanks.

This is an episode of Jim Henson's the Storyteller, not a movie. Don't remember which one but it was from an old russian story. The actor playing the russian soldier was Sean Bean I think.

The episode was called "the Soldier and Death"

It wasn't as dark as you remember it as a child; there's a lot of funny bits. Here's the fellow playing cards with the local devils;

http://www.apollo-tv.fsnet.co.uk/public/cards.jpg

And then, into the sack!

http://www.apollo-tv.fsnet.co.uk/public/intothesack.jpg

Thanks a ton, you are tight on. How did you know that?

Got the dvd a while back, they used to show the storyteller here in the UK when I was wee!