The city of Moklatsov

"Ugly swans" in cinemas in Russian rental a film is based on the story of the Strugatsky brothers: this is an event in itself. The main science fiction writers of the country, on the books of which more than one generation has grown, are not spoiled by adaptations. And in the "ugly swans" is also telling about the kids - not to the best of gifted and so smart that adults do not understand them, but simply afraid. I was afraid to approach the non -childish, but surprisingly accessible philosophy of science fiction writers and our cinema.

Attempts by free shifts for the screen and TV were undertaken. However, the result, as a rule, was far from the original, and regardless of the quality of the paintings. Each film driver found something his own from Arkady and Boris Natanovich. Based on formally from the motives of the Strugatsky, it was possible to remove both the booth "sorcerers" and the masterpiece "stalker". But even the last, impeccable experience is still to a greater extent Tarkovsky’s film than the “picnic on the sidelines”. Fans of writers were waiting for the paintings of Alexei Herman "is it difficult to be a god": did this glorified film master somehow act with the original source? But before, Herman was made by the long -conceived film on Strugatsky, director Konstantin Lopushansky. "Ugly swans" do not follow literally the book of the same name, but represent a very worthy option for its translation into the language of cinema, and at the level of world standards. In fact: Bruce Willis would not refuse such a project. Clearly outlined characters, a strong plot, where the hero is to save someone. Plus, there are stylish anti -utopic scenery, clear and humanistic, as filmmakers say, Messida - that is, the author’s thought brought to the viewer. The film, of course, risks being too superficial for fans of deep philosophy, but this simplification in the presentation of ideas is perhaps the only serious drawback of the tape. The film crew of Lopushansky truly performed a creative feat, for several weeks working with dark nights under heavy rain - more precisely, in the streams of water, designed to depict the impenetrable rain, laid according to the script.

The action takes place in an abnormal city, where people have not seen sunlight a long time ago, and the heavenly beans once opened, and since then they spill sediments. The climate was reflected on the public structure. The city, like a quarantine territory, is enclosed by the cordons from the outside, and the remaining residents fall under the influence of mysterious molasses. Brackets tightly, up to masks, are dressed in black and teach their paranormal things by the child schools in a local special school. An international commission is sent to the closed area from the bright part of the world. Its composition is the writer Viktor Banev, whose daughter, by coincidence, is just studying with people in black. The writer (he was played by Grigory Gladius with the Hollywood gloss) primarily amazes the remarkable intelligence of the kids. The shkets of twelve years are clearly superior to adults in their development, which is why they look at the parental generation down and with cruel pity. To put up with the fact that the eggs - with the supply of molasses - teach chickens, the authorities are no longer going to. It was decided to introduce troops into the city, and the abnormal rain cloud to smash into shreds by spraying some deadly muck. Banev defends the children, no matter how he was afraid of their giftedness. And, as it turns out, he was not afraid of that. The gray averaging in education and education will turn out to be much worse. Having seen enough in the "ugly swans" to the state alternative to the school of Moklazov, anyone will prefer, perhaps to help him with a rain - only would not drip on the brains.

10/18/2006 / Catherine Chen Material published in the newspaper No. 191 dated 10/19/2006.