Konstantin Lopushansky - Gadkie lebedi aka The Ugly Swans (2006)

Victor Banev, a Russian writer now living in America, is seeking his daughter, Ira, in the expanse of his former homeland. Banev's ultimate destination is a remote Siberian town of Tashlinsk, where military forces are now in control after some sort of unexplained catastrophe. In the city of Tashlinsk, mysterious circumstances have led to non-stop rainfall and the appearance of eerie characters called 'mokretsy' (the Wet Ones, or “Aquatters”), who are either aliens or mutants, and who generate a special energy barrier to protect themselves from or to prevent communication with undesirable human specimens.
The mokretsy appeal to gifted children who in the past had been in a special boarding school in Tashlinsk. And amongst them is Victor Banev’s daughter. Under the keen supervision of the mokretsy, the gifted kids are gradually transformed into a cadre of twisted mental geniuses with seemingly no humanity, no attachments or sentimentalities.





This beautiful, small budget film plays like a tribute to Tarkovsky's films(shakuhachi music and dripping water), but it is more conversational and quite direct in its message, which isn't simplistic, for all that directness. That message rings true these days as much as it did when the novel was written. Has the world become dangerously, insidiously pedestrian and banal? Have we squandered our potential utterly? The spirit of the film, the whole tone of it, is alienating - we cease to trust ourselves a little bit while watching it. It is a fairly short film too, it doesn't tax the viewer in that way, although it will challenge viewers. The Strugatsky brothers are my favorite Russian authors, and this film does, above all else, capture the spirit of their book, as well as can be expected. (IMDB comment)







Los cisnes feos
La historia, adaptación de la novela que los hermanos Arkadi y Boris Strugatsky escribieron en 1966, cuenta el viaje de Víctor Banev, un escritor enviado por las Naciones Unidas a una sombría ciudad llamada Tashlinsk que ha sido tomada por unos seres mutantes. Su misión es investigar el caso junto con la comisión que le acompaña, pero Víctor tiene otras motivaciones ya que, su hija, se encuentra en la ciudad retenida en una extraña escuela controlada por los mutantes. Allí enseñan a los niños del pueblo a menospreciar a los seres humanos en beneficio de una supuesta inteligencia superior. (FA)



Les Mutants du brouillard
Un changement climatique extrême s'est abattu sur la ville de Tashlinsk: pluie et brouillard sont omniprésents. Mais le plus étrange est l'apparition de mystérieux mutants: les "Humidions", qui ont isolé la ville du reste du monde à l'aide d'un bouclier invisible, et infranchissable... sauf s'ils le désirent. Victor Banev, un écrivain russe émigré, va rejoindre une commission de l'ONU qui cherche à mieux connaître et comprendre les "Humidions". Mais le conflit entre le gouvernement et les Humidions -né de la peur irrationnelle que les pouvoirs de ceux-ci font apparaître, et malgré les appels à la raison de la commission- semble atteindre un point de non retour. Quant à Victor Banev, il a des raisons plus personnelles pour être présent à Tashlinsk: sa fille, surdouée, suit les cours d'une école spéciale dirigée par les mutants. Victor veut la récupérer, et la sauver, avant que la situation ne tourne au plus mal.



Город-призрак с интернатом для одаренных детей. Здесь подрастает племя молодое и пугающе странное, чьими учителями являются существа "мокрецы" — то ли мутанты, то ли пришельцы. Беспричинное изменение климата, происходящее в городе, напоминающее вселенский потоп. Естественно, вокруг вьются бесчисленные комиссии, изучающие эту аномалию, спецслужбы и спецагенты. Герой фильма, писатель Виктор Банев вынужден вести собственное расследование этой ситуации: среди детей интерната находится его дочь. Он включается в борьбу не только за судьбу конкретных детей и своей дочери, но и за ту форму Будущего, которое выберет человечество...





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