Vladimir Gostyukhin

Moon Rainbow

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Moon Dave in space helmet

Soviet sci-fi from 1983, the year after Blade Runner, Moon Rainbow is as good an indicator as any of the gulf between the communist and capitalist blocs when it came to this sort of thing. The special effects are rudimentary and much of the actual sci-fi action takes place off screen! Bizarre. But if shots of cosmonauts walking moodily about a space ship tickle your curiosity, this might be for you. After a calamitous mission to one of the satellites of Uranus, during which most of the cosmonauts were killed, the survivors return to Earth, where they are soon confounding scientists with their newfound ability to influence electrical and electronic equipment. Attention first … Read more

The Ascent

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Boris Plotnikov as Sotnikov

Voskhozhdenie, the USSR movie from 1977, usually goes by the English title The Ascent, though The Ascension would be semantically and tonally closer to the mark, since this is a war movie done as an allegory for the passion of Jesus Christ. It’s a “lost patrol” movie. Or, to be strict, a lost patrol of a lost patrol. Larisa Shepitko’s movie starts off among a group of partisans, old folks, sick people and children out in the snow with nothing to eat except the handful of grain they are sharing out among themselves. They are forlorn, adrift, and will soon be dead, unless the two scouts sent out from the group come back … Read more