Soviet factory workers become geometric aliens in this 219-minute fever dream nobody asked for.
In an ordinary industrial Soviet town, notable only for presence of a radio-telescope, people start behaving strangely, in a robotic manner, while assuming geometry-inspired aliases and organizing into a new hierarchy. The phenomenon spreads via a device of alien origin, called “the mediator”, capable of implanting extraterrestrial minds into human bodies. The aliens are bound by limitations of the terrestrial technology, having to use the means at the disposal of humans to prepare the grounds for the full-scale invasion. With “the mediator" being unable to subdue minds of children, lunatics, geniuses, and rebels, a struggle over the fate of the town and the human civilization ensues.
Practical Effects
Gloriously grimy Soviet industrial aesthetic you can't fake.
Writing
Strugatsky brothers' novel adapted with paranoid precision.
Director
Vladimir Potapov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on the Strugatsky brothers' 1985 novel, written during glasnost when Soviet sci-fi finally got weird.
The radio telescope setting references real Soviet SETI projects; the film channels collective anxiety about technological obsolescence and imperial collapse.
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