When this picture is mentioned, many Russians, especially those in their 40s instantly become misty-eyed. For those like me who watched this SF epic at impressionable age, it has never faded from memory.
One of the handful of Soviet SciFi films that actually delivered on its promise, it captivated minds and found something close to cult following within Russian cineaste community.
Scripted by one of the best Russian SF writers of the 70-80s, Kir Bulychev, the film portrays a rather utopian future where people learned to live in harmony with Nature and in peace with each other. But dangers and challenges are sill lurking in deep space. When a space patrol finds a derelict alien spacecraft and the cosmonauts decide to investigate, they discover remains of cloning facility inside, with many dead bodies floating in zero gravity. One survivor is found, though, Niya, an artificially created person. The crew brings her back to Earth to try to establish contact and learn about her origins. At the same time Earth is visited by diplomats from a dying world, Dessa, a planet abused and exploited to the point of complete environmental collapse. The emissaries are pleading to send immediate help. Niya ends up on board of the ship sent to help.
The film’s director, a talented filmmaker Richard Viktorov made this picture truly “by hard ways”, undermined at every turn by hostile Soviet bureaucrats and censors. The budget has been cut several times. With this in mind, the integrity of vision achieved in the film is nothing short of a miracle. The limitations created a peculiar mixture of campy effects, like inflatable robots.
Director was even denied his wish to end the movie with title “The landscapes of dying planet Dessa were filmed entirely on our planet”. Nevertheless, a brave environmental statement came through loud and clear, something that was unheard of in USSR of 1981.
But more than the special effects, it is a special atmosphere of the film, the romance of the space exploration, poignancy of the environmental message and charming aura of the recognizable science fictional trappings, the humane and human characters that make it so memorable. And of course, a star of the film, unforgettable Yelena Metyolkina, a model turned actress, who created character of Niya.
In the US the film has been released in the 1980s but apparently butchered and poorly dubbed by distributors, renamed into “Humanoid Woman” and failed miserably.
In Russia it remained a beloved classic, and was re-released in theaters in mid-2000s by Richard Viktorov’s own son. Sadly, the son took decidedly “George Lucas” approach trying to “improve” it by adding unneeded digital effects, cutting the film by more than 20 minutes (allegedly to make it more watchable, but in fact, ruining the pace and logic) and re-recording sound-track completely to a huge detriment to the movie. The only good thing about the “new” version was a realization of how beautiful and organic the film originally looked and reminder that the themes tackled in the picture are still (if not more so) relevant to this day.
I would love to see this masterpiece rescued by Arrow or any other house, that manages to secure rights and track down decent film elements.
