A Beginner's Guide to Soviet Sci-Fi Cinema 

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As russian i really appreciate your soviet movie essays and guides. "Иван Васильевич меняет профессию" is also still one of the most popular soviet comedy, it's on air every new year's holiday.

Kin-Dza-Dza is one of the most underrated films I know of.

Man, soviet scifi makes me so nostalgic for a future that never happened.

'Mystery of th third planet' is based on Kir Bulychev's series of sci-fi novels about adventures of Alisa Selezneva, a teenager from the 23 century. These series of books were adopted into a TV mini-series 'Guest from the future' and live action movie 'Liliac ball' and some other lesser known adaptations. Its odd that you left those out as TV series was very popular.

Kin-Dza-Dza! is a movie my father watched in a movie theater when he was young. The premiere was very popular with young adults as I understand, and father told me that it was really funny that people were walking on the streets shouting "KOO!" at each other and those who haven't seen the movie yet were freaked out :D Me and people of my age still use the word to greet each other in text messengers, and for my father this word still is the word to start the converstation with.

Teens in The Universe gave me the creeps as a kid. They really nailed the hi-ranking robot's design with that androginous and uncanny-chill-Hellraiser-look and the whole psychological hooror of hijaking the limbic system and losing one's indentity is actually deeper then Star Track's borg.

Not only Tarkovsky didn't like Solaris, Stanisław Lem didn't like it either. But to be fair he was even more critical of the American adaptation

I'm a 19 year old Italian boy who just found out about your channel as I wanted to explore more the infinite world of cinema and your videos are beautiful examples of deep and wide cinema knowledge and history and I wanted to thank you very much for your continuous work in discussing about cinema culture/history. I was also very curious to know how you started learning about the world of cinema and what has lead you to create the channel. Thank you.

'Death ray' looks to be based on Alexey ( not Leo) Tolstoy's novel 'The hyperboloid of engineer Harin' which was adapted into movies two more times in 60s - 70s. Tolostoy was also the author of 'Aelita' and of famous childrens book 'Buratino', a reimagening of 'Pinoccio'.

I really got interested in Soviet cinema and fiction back in 1993 when I took "History of Communism" in college. They called it that for internal political reasons and to ensure Federal grant money, but essentially it was a class on Russian/Soviet/Russian history from the mid 1800s to the present. One of the things the professor did was make us watch several movies of the early Soviet era, mostly by Eisenstein and read the Soviet science fiction book, "Red Star". While the political themes were different than what I was used to, it was an interesting look into beliefs that weren't mine or what I was raised with, and what they saw as an "ideal". Overall, it gave me a better idea of the mindset and thought processes of the Soviets of the era...so I guess Thrawn was right that you can learn a lot about a culture by looking at their art.

"The Andromeda Nebula" was based on the novel of the same name by Ivan Yefremov, a prominent Soviet writer of historic fiction and sci-fi (among other things). "Nebula" is actually one of his several works set in his Grand Ring universe, others being "The Bull's Hour" and (partially) "The Heart of the Serpent". The "Nebula"'s adaptation saw some issues, with several alterations being made because of the political climate in the USSR at the time (mostly a few scenes were removed, and later were restored). That said, it was indeed shoddily filmed. "The Bull's Hour" was also meant to be adapted into film, but it never happened. "Mystery of the Third Planet" is also an adaptation, this time of Kir Bulychev's children's sci-fi novel "Alisa's travel". Bulychev had a whole series dedicated to Alisa, several of his works being adapted to cartoon or film. Another example being "Guest from the future" (1985), a television mini-series aimed at children and teens about Alisa traveling to our present (1980's at the time) in order to retrieve a powerful mind-reading device that some space pirates (the generic baddies of the series) stole from her, and that was stolen from them by a boy from the 1980's. Another adaptation was a feature film called "Lilac ball" (1988), where space pirates were using the eponymous lilac ball - a bio-weapon containing a hate virus - to take over planets and rob them of their precious resources. Since the pirates lacked the manpower to actually take the planets by force, they would send a scout ship to deploy a lilac ball. The pirates would eventually reach the planet themselves, set off the device, which released the virus and made everything on the planet hostile to each-other, and would finish off whatever's left of the inhabitants, taking over the planet unhindered. Alisa has to stop the pirates' ship from reaching Earth, where a lilac ball had already been placed back in the mythical past. While it might sound grim, it's actually a children's film featuring fairy-tale characters (mythical past, remember?), so don't expect anything overtly dark like "Per Aspera ad Astra" or "Dead man's letters". There were also several sci-fi films about robots, such as "The rainbow formula" (1966) about a scientist who secretly creates an android twin of himself in order to pursue his research of rainbows without the interference of his colleagues and bosses. The android escapes with a device that also allows it to change its appearance at will, and the scientist now has to find him. "His name was Robert" (1967), a sci-fi comedy about a scientist creating an android for future space exploration and gives it his own appearance. As an experiment he sends the android on a date with an employee, but the android falls in love with her and eventually runs off. This results in a wild goose-chase with people mistaking the scientist for his android twin on several occasions. Eventually the android breaks down because it is too difficult to be human. "The Adventures of Electronic" (1979), a tv mini-series about an android - Electronic - who was made to look like a boy from a magazine photo. Electronic escapes the lab and somehow comes across the boy - Zhenya - that his appearance was based on. The two become friends and Zhenya gets Electronic to go to school in his place and do other things that he doesn't like (i.e. chores) but Electronic becomes so good at these things and so well-liked by everyone around that Zhenya becomes afraid that Electronic will replace him in everything else. Since it's a children's tv-series, it's likewise fairly lighthearted. Speaking of the "Amphibious man", there was another underwater sci-fi film called "The Aquanauts", about an underwater research station. There was also the film called "This merry planet" (1973), a New Year-themed sci-fi comedy about a team of highly-rational, pedantic aliens visiting Earth on New Year's Eve, finding themselves at a New Year's costume party where everyone thinks they're just in costume and character. Since they're highly rational and pedantic, they don't understand the point of celebrating New Year, so as one can expect, by the end of the film they understand the point and become happier for it. It's a pretty bad film, to be honest, and it's also somewhat sexist. Just figured I'd give it an honourable mention. Another thing to mention is that during the Stalinist period and later as well there was the so called "Close goal science fiction" (rough translation) which was about scientific developments that are technically possible to achieve in the near(est) future, so it's kind of like hard sci-fi, but through the prism of Marxism-Leninism, and less "fi". It was primarily a literary genre and not very interesting for cinema, which is also the reason why there weren't a lot of cinematic works (there were some anthologies that came close, I think).

Shocked to know about DAR VETER, a clear inspiration behind Darth Vader. Lucas was a secret Comrade! 😹 Also "Hard to Be A God"- the aesthetics and premise gave me The Witcher vibes! Since Witcher was written in the 90s, i think it definitely got inspiration from this novel & movie!

I was growing up in Russia. We had a computer store called "Aelita". I didn't even know it was named after a film. Learned something new today.

The Land of Sannikov (1973) was one of my favourite films when I was a teenager

Some commentators already mentioned the TV series "Guest From The Future" with the same character Alisa Seleznyeva as in the Mystery Of The Third Planet animation. Although it is a TV series it is definitely worth checking out. It has I believe 6 episodes and greatly resembles a modern japanese anime shows in form. The plot features high school teenagers and the main protagonist is their peer Alisa from the future. The story revolves around time travel and a piece of technology from the future that allows mind reading. It has evil shapeshifting aliens, flying robot cars and humanoid robots. The soundtrack for the series is a masterpiece and has become absolutely iconic. It is used in a classic leitmotif way throughout the show in different arrangements to reinforce emotion. Today this music "Прекрасное далёко" is often used to project nostalgia. This TV show enjoyed immense popularity and the girl who played the leading role has become a sex symbol of a whole generation of soviet school children. She got endless bags of mail from all over USSR after the show aired. These guys are probably around 45-50 now.

As someone been born in USSR in 1980, and influenced by grandfather who was a true patriot of his country, I inherited true love for Soviet Space ... what can I call it, genre? Some of the animation movies you showed flashbacked me to my childhood way back to 1987. Made me fill very nostalgic about these childhood years that long been passed away. Thank you for that.🙏

It always blows my mind when people claim that the USSR didn't create innovative and wonderful culture.

Im happy to see Amphibian Man mentioned because it is one of my favorite films and it's a shame not many know about it.

Can we just appreciate how incredibly cool all of these space suits look? They have a completely different feel to western scinece fiction and they just feel more realistic than a lot of american films of the era

In college I did a project on Eastern European Sci-Fi movies of the 50's and 60's and I have seen 11 of the films you have mentioned. I am glad to see others have an appreciation for these films.

Solaris sticks with me to this day, 20 years after I watched it for the first time. Some of the scenes in it are terrifying even now.

Hey, just wanted to drop a comment to say that your video was awesome! As a sci-fi fan, I loved learning about the history and culture of Soviet sci-fi and your explanations were super clear and interesting.

My grandfather played in original Hard to be a God (baron) and Amphebian man remake, Georgian Actor Elguja Burduli. Kin-dza-dza was also directed by Giorgi danelia and the violinist boy is also Georgian. And there was a popular Georgian animated series about a robot in a spaceship named Khelmarjve Ostati (master crafter) That's just some off the top of my head

I love Soviet sci fi! I even took a class called “comparing eastern and western science fiction” in college lmao

I like the way you talk about these; it seems like a lot of the time when people talk about anything from the soviet union, they speak with a sort of distaste or disrespect, instead of appreciating the art that went into it. Lots of good films here, and an interesting history with the space race :-)

I still never fail to be amazed by the sheer bizarreness and surrealism of most of the Soviet filmographic content, ESPECIALLY the animation and science fiction movies. They're so weird, crude and nonsensical most of the times, yet absolutely gorgeous and artistic at the same time. Truly, a one of a kind genre that will never be able to be captured *EVER* again.

Tarkovskiy is much more loved abroad, then in Russia itself. Because foreign viewers are mostly critics or movie lovers, who are told that they are going to watch the talented movie of a talented Soviet director. Soviet viewers were ordinary people, who came to movie theater, some after work or study, some on a weekend with family, to watch a sci-fi movie. But instead they were given a very strange and unnecessary long arthouse project.

I'm absolutely obsessed with Tarkovsky. "Stalker" is absolutely mesmerizing...

There also was 1984 movie called Professor Dowell's Testament. It's based on 1925 book Professor Dowell's Head. The plot revolves around Professor Dowell's invention of a solution that can reanimate dead bodies, which is used to reanimate Dowell's head after his death. Can't say how good it is, since I watched it as a kid, but at the time I liked it.

Yes, the cartoon Contract (1985) was great, I so loved watching it as a kid - sadly, it was not aired on TV often. I lived in Siberia, was born in 1978.

5:05 Murphy, they coming for you! 6:07 Here you are, Jonesy! 7:03 Dave,I'm afraid,I can't do that. 7:53 Godzilla,I'm flying for you, the mighty Rodan! 8:03 Congratulations,Shinji! Now you are starring in Urotsukidoji! Fighting Venus,prepare Uranus!

Everyone who read and loved the novels hates Tarkovsky for what he's done to Solaris and Stalker. Watching Stalker after reading a book was my first childhood trauma.

I am absolutely fascinated and enamored with Stalker. It mesmerizes me every time and my imagination runs wild. I love it.

I love this idea of half documentary and then half imagination. both educational and entertaining at the same time.

Thanks for the video! You have uncovered and presented many films that are not known even to sci-fi fans in the later USSR. FYI: "Aelita" is pronounced with clear "Ah" in the beginning, 4-syllable, flowing name.

Thanks for highlighting these very cool films

I love how ad-reading is the eastern equivalent of leader/party-praising in western media. Apparently it was a major culture shock for soviet citizens to have movies on tv broken up by advertising breaks.

This is so sad that you didnt mentioned Visitor from the Future. But anyway - video is great, as a kid i was growing up with such films back in the days. Thank you a lot for covering it for western audience. Peace!

I remember watching Вельд (The Veldt) in 1987. It is based on several Ray Bradbury's short stories. It was eerie as hell, the closest to horror cinema USSR never had.

I feel like "Abduction of a Wizard" from 1989 deserves a mention. It's a time travel story, with a couple of researchers from future establish a temporary base in a modern-day village, with the goal of going further into the past, where they want to save a scientist - who was assumed by his contemporaries to be a wizard - from his death from enemy's attack.

Thank you, this was a brilliant educational essay ^__^ I really enjoyed it

Thank you. I learned a lot. A great follow-up would be the flood of Russian sci-fi in the last 10-15 years (Darkest Hour, Invasion, The Guardians, Sputnik, etc.) . Some of it very good. Some less so.

Great research! Thank you so much for your work. Some of mentioned movies meen a lot to me. Some of them is a true art.

The film "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession" (full name of the movie) is very loved, as it has many jokes and satires on the topic of real life.

Would be great to make a video about post Soviet sci fi. There were some very peculiar examples of that in the 90s and in the 21st century

great work you are doing, man!

10:02- tarantino watched this movie in his childhood and he loved it.

Thanks! Informative stuff-subscribed!

stalker atmosphere is just amazing cannot explain why

Great video as always. You could make a video on Kalatozov's work someday, his work is really underrated

Thanks for the great video ❣️My movie list is much longer now😇‼️

It seems to me that “Planeta bur” was inspired by the Strugatskys’ work “The Land of Crimson Clouds”. The book was published just in 1959. And the book also described a human expedition to Venus and the crew also explored the planet on an all-terrain vehicle.

Totally fascinating! I gotta go watch some a this stuff now

Thank you such a great video

Dead Man's Letter is a very good film. Watch it if you haven’t. Also there are some really good greek scifi too and Polish also

Americans having to read ads in space is genuinely a great dig

Very good channel for people who appreciate foreign (non-Hollywood) cinema.

TY so much! Ive always loved Russian SciFi; Books Stories Animation Movies. Been looking for a guide!

this channel is a treasure for every seventh art lover. keep it up brother 🖤🖤

great research. thanks.

Great job, man.

Thanks for helping learn fast what might be worth watching.

Not sure if someone mentioned here «Tarkovsky-style» 3-part movie from 1990 called 'Intermediary' (Посредник). It is about alien invasion. Atmospheric, dark, it left strong impression by it's visual parts. Genuine part of post-totalitarian late-USSR culture.

I would love to see something like this with Polish sci-fi - On the Silver Globe, The Hourglass Sanatorium, Golem

To the other films already mentioned in the comments, I would add animated mini-series "Fantadroms" about a robot cat. :) The series were made in then-Soviet Latvia and started in 1985. I can recall three episodes but apparently there were more, and production actually stretched into the 90s.

Being a native Russian and a fan of Sci-Fi I am breathless as to how many of Soviet Sci-Fi films went totally past me unnoticed. Thank you very much for your work.

15:20 - I'm watching on a mobile phone, but this is possibly (of this kind), the tightest practical effect I have ever seen!

THANK YOU! I’ve been looking for “pisma myortvogo cheloveka” literally for over a decade. I saw it while recovering from a terrible infection and could never remember the name.

Your videos are so much fun to watch. Could you do a video on Chinese cinema?

Super cool video. Soviet cinema is super interesting to me since I wasn't alive at the time as well as knowing how closed-off the Soviet Union was from the western world.

Russian here. And while I don't watch lots of movies… Кин дза дза holds a special place in my heart. Sought out all of the cinema adaptations of Солярис and was left unsatisfied with all of them in comparison to the book, including the Soviet one. Just watched Будет ласковый дождь, being curious of the description you gave it. Could be better but it's strong enough for a short with that closing shot. Made me wanna read Bradbury's short story someday.

Thank you for your great video, if I many, I'd love to request a video on either Soviet Comedies (Operation Y, The Striped Trip, or The Diamond Arm), Soviet Horror (a bit uncommon but 2 that come to mind are Savage Hunt of King Stakh and Viy), or the Soviet Epics which were made as a response to the American big budgets of the day (my favorite being the work of Alexander Ptushko)

Thanks for the video. The movies you mentioned were the Soviet mainstream (even Tarkovsky). There were lots of Soviet movies with kind of sci-fi plots, that remain completely unknown in the West because the plots/events/jokes would need quite a lot of explaining. Anyway, one of those movies is The Thirty-third (directed by Danelia, the then-future director of above mentioned Kin-dza-dza). It is about a guy who works as a process engineer at a soft drinks'' factory. Once his teeth started to ache. A young dentist found out that the guy has thirty-three teeth instead of usual thirty-two. The guy was taken first to the capital of his region, then to Moscow, where he was told that he descends from Martians, so he is launched to Mars. There are so many hidden jokes about the USSR there and its current situation.

Great video! I would love to see you do a vid on Soviet Fantasy and to see more fantasy on your channel in general

I've only seen three Soviet sci-fi movies, but after Stalker and Kin-Dza-Dza, I'm certainly ready for more. Planeta Bur reminds me of Metroid, so I'll watch that one next.

Bradbury's "Here There Be Tygers" was also animated in 1989. Pretty much all good Western sci-fi are also anti-Capitalist - Robocop, Alien, Bladerunner, Total Recall etc.

5:00 RUR on the chest of the Robot stands for Rossumovi Universální Roboti, a sci-fi by czech author Karel Čapek, written in 1921. Karel Čapek is the creator of the word "Robot", but he used it more in the sense of what we call now Android - a humanoid robot, with human looks and body proportions. It was really nice that the Soviet Movie Loss of Sensation made a reference to his work, even though it is based on a different novel.

Per aspera ad astra had the segments on the surface of the alien planet filmed using special film used for infrared spectrum photography, which gives those scenes a unique texture. The weightlessness scenes were filmed underwater and look extremely realistic.

I Think everyone appreciates what you're doing. And you're doing it well. Promoting an extraordinary wealth of history, art and perspective "largely ignored by the west', and I think that's what creates some of the mysterious awe about it. Don't be afraid to go into depth with things that you find captivating, it only lends more fascination in the detail and experience of viewer. . I could listen all day Thank you. again A Wealth..

Other cool ideas are Beginner’s Guide to Classic American Westerns(since you already did Italian Westerns) And maybe also Italian horror, the French New Wave etc Love your videos

There are some great looking live action and animated films on this video! Some of them should be added to or be remade!!!

Well, by the way, one could recall the film Electronics. It's about two twins. One of them is a robot and wants to become a human. Quite cult in Russia

I would add a 1974 film "The Land of Sannikov". It's about a journey to a warm oasis in a polar region, so, I think, it qualifies as sci-fi.

Oh, These films are mind blowing with their beauty

Interplanetary revolution was meant to be a part of Aelita, but eventually it was decided not to include it and have it as a separate animation Contract is based on a Robert Sheckley story The Path is an adaptation of Kir Bulychev story Poligon is an adaptation of Sever Gansovskyy story

Cool!

I love how the title is about sci-fi and titlescreen have Shpack disguised as "Ivan the Fearsome".

If to take just three soviet sci-fi movies, it would be Ivan Vasilievich and Kin-Dza-Dza. The third to come in mind is Dog's Heart based on Bugakov's novel, late Soviet classics. It is also the best screen adaptation of Bulgakov ever. Of Bulychev screen adaptation, I like the most a TV episode "Knowing How to Throw a Ball" (youtube 6WbCy4q4t0k).

Budet laskovy dozhd is one of the best animation media I've ever seen. Despite being so short, it leaves you with so much to ponder that you will not be able to move on from it for the next few days. Also, sadly, very relatable today.

The Amphibian Man, as in the book but not its more popular (often lighter and softer) adaptations, was inspired by a French sci fi novel authored by a cool count named Jean de La Hire. Jean de La Hire’s work is becoming PD in Australia within a few years. Hooray.

Отличное видео!

Great video. I have already seen about half of these. The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is probably my favorite of the lot. At times it felt like if David Lynch was actually Estonian and decided to make a weird whodunit. I haven't watched your animation video yet and I guess it was technically Russia, but AMBA is an insane animated short.

Great job, but you forget about "Guest from the future" (1985) also very in Soviet Union. And "The adventures of the Elektronic "

Stalker is utterly fantastic, as someone said: three men go for a walk and one of them gets a dog.

I really like the one about humans on a primitive world that is anachronistic being watched over by spacers on space stations. I like this kind of trope.

I first watched Solaris after a month long drug fueled binge where I had basically been awake for the last two weeks - I thought it was the greatest movie I had ever seen. I rewatched it sober a few years later and it didn't have the same effect. Pro tip: deprive yourself of sleep and watch it so that it fills your entire view (VR may be great), be prepared to trip balls, especially in opening description of the descent to the planet!

I enjoyed both Nightwatch and Daywatch so they opened up my willingness to see more from the east.

12:40 I wonder if this was an inspiration for the 80s anime "Gunbuster!" which also had a lot of emphasis on the interpersonal relationships between the teen characters and the emotional fallout of time dilation.

Lem was really funny when it came to adaptations of Solaris, all of which he hated (there was an earlier TV version). He said something like "If I'd wanted to make that kind of story, I'd have called it The Erotic Problems of People in Space."