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Pisma mjortwowo tscheloweka

Letters from a Dead Man | Briefe eines toten Mannes
Retrospective 2017
© DEFA-Stiftung / Nikolai Pokoptsew
The apocalypse has arrived. The accidental launch of a missile triggers a nuclear world war. In the basement of a museum, a handful of survivors await transfer to the “main bunker”. Among them is computer scientist and Nobel laureate Dr Larsen. In discussions with his dying wife and letters to his missing son, he reflects on the atomic firestorm and on the future of a humanity forced to live underground. In his excursions to a nearby church, which shelters traumatised children, and to a field hospital, the gruesome reality of a world reduced to radioactive rubble is revealed ... A former assistant to Andrei Tarkovsky, Lopushansky uses cheerless images, tinted yellow or blue, to evoke a nightmarish vision of post-nuclear society, in which public order can only be maintained with rigid, compulsory rules. The survivors’ discussions examine the role science played in the human catastrophe, and the ethical consequences of that. According to the director, the answer print of the film was struck on the same day as the nuclear accident at Chernobyl.
by Konstantin Lopuschanski
with Rolan Bykow, Jossif Ryklin, Viktor Michailow, Alexander Sabinin, Swetlana Smirnowa, Wazlaw Dworshezki, Nora Grjakalowa USSR 1986 Russian 87' Colour Rating R16

With

  • Rolan Bykow
  • Jossif Ryklin
  • Viktor Michailow
  • Alexander Sabinin
  • Swetlana Smirnowa
  • Wazlaw Dworshezki
  • Nora Grjakalowa

Crew

Director Konstantin Lopuschanski
Screenplay Konstantin Lopuschanski, Wjatscheslaw Rybakow, Boris Strugazki
Cinematography Nikolai Pokopzew
Editing T. Pulinoi
Music Alexander Schurbin
Sound Leonid Gawrischenko
Art Director Jelena Amschinskaja, Viktor Iwanow
Special Effects E. Filaretow, E. I. Krinski
Producer Raissa Proskurjakowa

Produced by

Lenfilm

Additional information

Copy: British Film Institute, London