''The Ugly Swans'' (russian: Гадкие лебеди) is a 2006 Russian

science fiction drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Konstantin Lopushansky Konstantin Sergeyevich Lopushansky (russian: Константин Сергеевич Лопушанский; born June 12, 1947) is a Soviet and Russian film director, film theorist and author. He is best known for directing the apocalyptic and p ...

, based on the 1967 novel of the same name by

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky The brothers Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky (russian: Аркадий Натанович Стругацкий; 28 August 1925 – 12 October 1991) and Boris Natanovich Strugatsky ( ru , Борис Натанович Стругацкий; 14 A ...

. The film is often compared to Andrei Tarkovsky's '' Stalker'', also adapted from a Strugatsky book.

Plot

The film's plot is loosely based on the novel, with some superficial differences. The story has been adjusted slightly to contextualize it in the "near future," with the main character Victor Banev recast as a UN envoy to the town of Tashlinsk, where a mysterious group has taken the town's children to an isolated boarding school. The major departure from the novel's plot is in the ending, in which the "Aquatters" ("Slimeys" from the novel) are all killed by the humans. The children are heroically rescued by Banev, but they are unable to reassimilate into society and are institutionalized. A small role created for the film was a UN negotiator named

Gennady Komov The Noon Universe ( Russian term: "Мир Полудня" or "Мир Полдня" – "World of Noon"; also known as the “Wanderers’ Universe”) is a fictional future setting for a number of hard science fiction novels written by Arkady and ...

, a reference to a popular character from the Strugatskys' other books.

Awards

The film received the Best Score award at Kinotavr.

References

External links

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Film description
at the

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and sho ...

2006 films 2000s science fiction drama films Films based on works by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky Films directed by Konstantin Lopushansky Russian mystery films Russian science fiction drama films Russian dystopian films Films about writers 2000s Russian-language films Neo-noir Films based on science fiction novels Films based on Russian novels {{2000s-sf-film-stub