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Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Cinema can scarcely have witnessed a more potent evocation of a bygone era. Yet, for all its atmospheric and visual accomplishments Alexei German's final feature makes for gruelling viewing, as parallels are drawn between the Dark Ages and a century of Russian history. German first sought to adapt the novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (whose Roadside Picnic inspired Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker) in the 1960s and he spent six years filming before his death in 2013 left screenwriter wife Svetlana Karmalita and son (also Alexei German) to supervise post-production. The impenetrable story concerns a scientist mistaken for a deity while observing the planet "Arkanar", which is in the throes of a civil war between the subversive Blacks and the authoritarian Greys, whose Stalinesque leader is bent on liquidating the intelligentsia. But this is a picture to be experienced rather than understood, with monochrome photography and magnificent sets recalling the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch and the Brueghels. Rarely has a film focused so relentlessly and to such mesmerising effect on mud and bodily excretions. Exhausting, exhilarating and excessively enigmatic, this is an instant cult classic.

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Credits

Cast

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Don RumataLeonid Yarmolnik
Baron PampaYury Tsurilo

Crew

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DirectorAlexei German

Details

Theatrical distributor
Arrow
Released on
2015-08-07
Languages
Russian
Available on
DVD
Formats
Black and white
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