To the Stars by Hard Ways
Через тернии к звёздам (1981)
Production
Director
Richard Viktorov
Scenario
Richard Viktorov
Actors
Yelena Metyolkina
Niya
Vadim Ledogorov
Cadet Stepan Lebedev
Uldis Lieldidzs
Sergei Lebedev
Yelena Fadeyeva
Maria Pavlovna
Vatslav Dvorzhetsky
Petr Petrovich
Nadezhda Sementsova
Professor Nadezhda Ivanova
Aleksandr Lazarev
Professor Klimov
Aleksandr Mikhaylov
Dreier
Short description
In the 23rd century, a patrol ship comes across a wrecked vessel of unknown design in deep space. The only survivor aboard is Niya, an artificial humanoid woman, and she is brought back to Earth, where a family of scientists takes her in. She has lost her memory of the accident that disabled the ship, and efforts to recover it reveal that she was created for a purpose tied to her home world, which is ruled by a dictator who is destroying its environment. When Niya joins an expedition to her native planet, the mission hidden inside her begins to take effect.
Yelena Metyolkina plays Niya, with Vadim Ledogorov, Uldis Lieldidzs, Yelena Fadeyeva, Vatslav Dvorzhetsky and Nadezhda Sementsova among the cast. Richard Viktorov directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Kir Bulychyov. It was Viktorov's first feature, made at Gorky Film Studios in the Soviet Union, and he went on to direct Comet in 1984.
The film runs 148 minutes. On TMDB it holds a rating of 5.6 out of 10 from 66 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- Scenes of the dying planet Dessa were filmed in Tajikistan, near the abandoned oil refinery outside the city of Isfara.
- In 2001, a revised version of the film was released by the director's son. Some special effects were reworked, and a completely new soundtrack was recorded in Dolby Digital format. The film's duration was reduced by 20 minutes (according to the creators of the revised version, drawn-out episodes that reduced the film's dynamics were cut, as were episodes containing Soviet ideological coloring).
- Composer Alexey Rybnikov used melodies he had written for the opera "Juno and Avos" when writing the music for the film. In the new version, due to copyright concerns, all of them were replaced with music by D. Rybnikov, the son of Alexey Lvovich.
- At the end of the film, the inscription "All shots of the dying planet Dessa were filmed on planet Earth" were intended to be placed, but in the initial version, the editors cut the phrase, considering it unacceptably sharp. These credits only appeared in the finale of the updated version of the film.
- In 1989, an abridged version of the film titled "Humanoid Woman" aired as part of the American television show "Mystery Science Theater 3000".
- Originally, it was intended to film the alien completely bald, but due to criticism from officials at Goskino, short white wigs had to be made for all the clones.
- The mannequins, 'playing' the role of deceased Gaya clones, were made from plaster casts of Metyolkina, filled with liquid foam plastic.
- The investigation of the destroyed alien spacecraft was filmed on sets installed at the bottom of the 'Yalta' hotel's swimming pool.
- The film was supposed to show a flyer – a vehicle that would bring Niya and Sergei Lebedev down from orbit directly to his house on a landing pad. But there wasn't enough budget for this vehicle, so they had to show Sergei and Niya walking onto the pad, with their origin unclear. Also, in the scene where Stepan Lebedev asks Nadezhda for permission to 'go for a ride,' he walks behind bushes where an ordinary car is visible.
- Some space scenes were filmed underwater, using 'hydro-weightlessness' to simulate the real thing.
- The Barmaley robot was originally intended to be made of metal. But the first prototype was welded by the props master from iron buckets, ignoring the director's sketches, and Viktorov rejected it. There was no time or money left for another one, so the robot was made inflatable.
- In the episode where Niyya undresses on the beach, it was originally intended to show that the heroine had no navel. Party officials deemed such a scene unacceptable in Soviet cinema. To preserve the scene, a dialogue about the 'moral norms of Earthlings' had to be invented.
- The 'Southern Cross' plateau was filmed near Bakhchisarai in the cave city of Chufut-Kale.
- Nikolai Viktorov, the director's son, who later became a director of the 'Thorns' New Version, appeared as one of the archaeologists on the 'Southern Cross' plateau.
- Dess's underground structures were filmed in the basements of Solyanka.
- On the information board of the spaceport, one can notice the name of the starship 'Zarya' and its destination – Alpha Cassiopeiae. This starship is obviously named after the 'Zarya' starship from Richard Viktorov's other film: 'Moscow – Cassiopeia'.
- The all-terrain vehicle used by Earthlings to explore Dess was built at the Yalta Film Studio from an army tracked armored personnel carrier and aircraft parts. The biomass, consisting of fire-retardant foam and flour, was also filmed there, and scuba divers floating in the mixture created the visual effect of the mass seething with life.
- Grandmother Stepanida Maria Pavlovna’s mention of Pluto, where “they found some Wanderers,” is a reference to the “Noonday” cycle of novels by the Strugatsky brothers.
- To capture the unusual landscapes of the planet Dessa, cinematographer Alexander Rybin used an orange filter and SN-6m double-layer aerial film, which is sensitive to infrared radiation.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
