The Third Planet

I do not consider The Third Planet to be an attractive and quality film, but watching it is not a waste of time. It shows Russian cinema at the turn of the Soviet era and the future of Russian film. The duration is excessive considering the plot, typically Soviet, and the recent era is manifested in it by the traditional inclination towards lyricism. On the other hand, nudity appears in the film, which had no place in official Soviet prudery. Rogozhkin did not yet know how to work with it, and it was grafted somewhat forcibly. Similarly, the absence of censorship is newly evident, so the characters cannot resist making a series of attacks on the Soviet past. The film shows a reference to the Strugatsky brothers' book "Roadside Picnic" and Tarkovsky's famous film Stalker stemming from it, but above all, it is an attempt to come to terms with the Chernobyl disaster. The set design is modest, and to be honest, in Russia of the early 90s, I think there would have been enough devastated locations that would have created a darker atmosphere than Rogozhkin's characters running around the forest. If there is anything excessive in Rogozhkin's film and if anything is impressive, it is the amount of military technology that would be quite a feat to gather and pay for today. Overall impression: 40%. (29/12/2009)