REVIEWED
“Arghh! the children of dragonflies.” - Sereda (Misha Yershov)
Imagine Stanley Kubrick had done masses of peyote, learnt Russian and for shits & giggles decided to make a 2001/Clockwork Orange hybrid to scare the crap out of kids. Hey it could have happened, cause thats how the super-cool 70's rolled bitch.
Its the tale of a group of 14 year old astronauts, who are sent on a space mission to a planet they won't reach till hitting 40 (CCCP space program we salute your ethics). Due to some time paradox they get stuck in a time void different than Earths, doomed to be forever teens floating in the universe. They land on the strange planet named Vryana, the native human-like extraterrestrial beings are being controlled by a transmission that keeps them compliant. Will the teen space cadets ever get back to mother Russia, or will the hypnotic music and beautiful coloured drinks (wink, wink) keep them stranded on Vryana?.
Richard Viktorov's 'Pigs in Space' erm 'Teens in the Unverse' is a trippy 70's science fiction cinema MASTERPIECE. It's like a 70 minute ride through Willy Wonka's chocolate tunnel (and I mean the good one with Gene Wilder not the Burton abomination)
Sting once asked "If the Russians love their children too?" after watching this vibrantly silly, at times oppressively bleak toned Russian kids sci-fi epic... I'm erm, not too sure. But I know I adored the f@*k out of it. Its so thought provoking for a children's movie. Visually its phenomenal featuring lots of kitsch rocketship sets and funky spacescapes. And boy the editing is like alchemy. You just don't get this level of editing in a kids movie, its like a 4 hour epic crammed into 70 minutes and you still feel its getting all its fantastic plot in without skipping parts. I salute the young cast who all worked hard growing their pubic hair mustaches, including the girls. Writers Isai Kuznetsov & Avenir Zak appear to have done more family fantasy films and I'd love to know if director Richard Viktorov's other movies are worth catching.
[Personal Reasons For Remembering]
Dying civilizations, bong sounding chillout cabins, Prisoner styled bouncing white balls, nightmarish Daft Punk like aliens, computers that demand you to lose emotion, LSD wig-outs, I could seriously list 100's of memorable bits. This movies overloaded with so much cool stuff, its guaranteed to please anyone who used to be a little nerdy in their youths. I'm just saddened I've only caught up with it now that I'm an old fart. And I never had the opportunity to grow up with it.
Originally taken from Letterboxd
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