The Inhabited Island

The Inhabited Island
English theatrical poster
Directed by	Fyodor Bondarchuk
Produced by	Alexander Rodnyansky Sergei Melkumov
Written by	Marina and Sergey Dyachenko (screenplay) Strugatsky brothers (novel)
Narrated by	Gennady Vengerov
Starring	Vasiliy Stepanov Yuliya Snigir Pyotr Fyodorov Aleksei Serebryakov Fyodor Bondarchuk
Music by	Yuriy Poteenko (original music) Pavel Doreuli (sound effects)
Cinematography	Maksim Osadchy
Editing by	Igor Litoninsky
Distributed by	Art Pictures Studio Non-Stop Productions STS
Release date(s)	December 18, 2008 (part I) April 23, 2009 (part II)
Running time	115 min. (part I) 100 min. (part II)
Country	Russia
Language	Russian
Budget	$36,6 million (both parts)

The Inhabited Island (Russian: Обитаемый остров) is a 2008-2009 science fiction film directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk based on a 1971 novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky of the same Russian name, published in English as Prisoners of Power. Due to the length of the filmed material, the film was released in two installments. The first movie was released in Russia on December 18, 2008 and the conclusion released on April 23, 2009.

Plot summary

Part I

In the year 2157, the main character, Maxim Kammerer (Stepanov), is a space pilot of the Free Search Group. His spaceship is damaged and he crash lands on an unknown planet. The ship detonates just after Maxim crawls out of it. Maxim is discovered and made captive by Zef (Garmash), a native of the planet. Guy Gaal (Fyodorov), a Corporal of the Guards, is assigned to escort him to the capital.

As they are making their way to the capital their military convoy is attacked by so-called "degenerates". The degenerates destroy a nearby tower, which is said to be part of a ballistic missile defense system. During the attack Maxim saves Guy from imminent death. Maxim learns that the name of the planet is Saraksh, and the country where he landed is governed by a militaristic dictatorship of the Unknown Fathers.

Maxim is in the process of being escorted to Strannik (Wanderer in Russian), a powerful figure in the government; but one of Strannik's men, Fank, suffers from a surge of epilepsy; Maxim is able to escape. He encounters Rada Gaal (Snigir), discovers she is the sister of Guy; Maxim falls in love with her. Maxim is attacked by unknown assailants while escorting Rada to her living quarters and demonstrates combat prowess beyond normal. Maxim stays in the city with Guy and Rada and becomes a candidate for service in the Guards. He learns about the ongoing war and tries to determine who exactly the enemy is and what they are fighting for. After Maxim refuses to execute a group of captured degenerates, he is shot by his superior and left to die.

Through accelerated healing, Maxim recovers and joins a group of degenerate fighters. During his time with the degenerates, Maxim learns the true nature of the towers erected across the country. Contrary to state propaganda, the towers actually function as mind control devices, sending a special kind of radiation that ensures the citizens' loyalty to the state. Once at 10am and again at 10pm, the majority of the country's population experiences a patriotic frenzy but the remainder suffers from intense pain and convulsions. It seems like the degenerates, as well as certain of the Unknown Fathers, are the minority which do not submit to the towers' radiation, though they suffer from excruciating pain at the time of radiation spikes.

After fighting alongside the degenerates in the attack on a tower, Maxim is again captured by the military and sentenced to a prison labor camp tasked with cleaning the wilderness of automated defense systems left abandoned by decades of war. When on mission, Maxim and two other prisoners, Zef and Veper, find an abandoned power transmission station in the woods. While exploring the underground facility, they encounter the golovans, a race of feral humanoid creatures who attack the prisoners. Maxim speculates that they may be sentient and highly intelligent.

Maxim comes to the conclusion the degenerates do not actually seek to dismantle the system of towers, but plan to overthrow the Unknown Fathers and use the mind control system for their own designs. Both the degenerates and the Fathers seek to recruit Maxim, since he is immune both to mind control and pain, but he decides that neither the degenerates nor the Fathers deserve his allegiance.

As they exit the station, Maxim manages to capture a mechanized tank which attacked the prisoners in the woods. He drives the tank to the border where he again encounters Guy who is serving at a border post. Maxim takes Guy with him and heads south to the neighbouring nations.

Part II

The second part is named Skhvatka (Skirmish); it starts with a brief description of the first part plot.

Maxim tries to reveal the true purpose of the towers to Guy, who does not believe at first but is convinced when his enthusiasm fades considerably as they get farther from the coverage area of the towers.

They arrive in the once-prosperous part of the empire, now turned a God-forsaken desert in an aftermath of an atomic war. They meet the mutant people who are suffering from the effects of radiation poisoning and are pursued by both the border guards and the barbarians from the south. Maxim tries to convince mutants to start a rebellion or join the barbarians to fight with the so-called Fatherland, but they are too weak both physically and morally.

They advise him to ask help from The Wizard, a mutant kid with paranormal abilities. Maxim laments if it is at all possible to overtake the regime of the Fathers, but finally decides to join the Islands Empire to fight the Unknown Fathers. A leader of the mutants, who is a former Colonel of the medical service, convinces Maxim that a desert passage would be too dangerous and presents him with a flying bomber-airship that survived the war.

As Guy and Maxim fly the airship, Guy falls victim to the tower radiation that reaches them and shows his fanatical allegiance, this time to Maxim personally. Maxim collides the airship into the Tower and destroys it, but the airship is shot down by automatic anti-aircraft guns.

After crash-landing in the sea, Maxim and Guy successfully reach ground and find an abandoned Imperial White Submarine. They find evidence of mass killings in the Islands Empire and it is now crystal clear that joining the Islands Empire is impossible.

Meanwhile, the State Prosecutor makes plans to find Maxim and use his outstanding abilities for his profit. He talks with Rada but after she declines his request to cooperate, puts her in jail. Strannik helps Rada escape the Prosecutor since he also wants to find Maxim.

Maxim learns that the Fatherland declared war on Khonti, former part of the united Empire, and he and Guy surrender to a land patrol. They and most of the male prisoners are sent to the front, including his friends Zef and Veper. During the battle Guy perishes. Fank finds Maxim and convinces him to join Strannik's quarters.

Fatherland is quickly defeated, and the State Prosecutor, who was an active supporter of the war, realizes that the Unknown Fathers will assassinate him for this failure. He contacts Maxim and reveals the location of the Tower Control Center, wanting him to destroy it. Maxim concurs with his reasoning and destroys the Center with the help of Resistance leaders Zef and Veper, then saves Rada from Strannik.

Strannik realizes what has happened but only when it is too late. He chases Maxim and during their final confrontation it is revealed that Strannik's real name is Rudolf and he is from Earth as well. Rudolf works in the Galactic Security Bureau and he was the President of Earth for some time. Sikorski blames Maxim with spoiling a thoroughly prepared plan to save this planet. He reminds Maxim about movable radiators which are functionally equivalent to the Towers, the imminent starvation, the raising inflation, the need for economic recovery and for decontamination of radioactive lands.

Strannik also reveals that the Islands Empire plans an invasion to the Fatherland, which would be very hard to counteract without the so-called black radiation of the Towers, which causes depression. He suggests Maxim to return home to Earth.

Maxim responds that this planet is his home and his primary objective is to not allow anybody to rebuild the zombie towers, but he is ready to cooperate with Sikorski on other matters. Sikorski agrees to this, and Maxim stays on the planet with Rada.

Cast

• Vasiliy Stepanov as Maxim Kammerer (voiced by Maksim Matveev)
• Yuliya Snigir as Rada Gaal
• Pyotr Fyodorov as Guy Gaal
• Aleksei Serebryakov as Strider
• Fyodor Bondarchuk as State Prosecutor aka Smart
• Sergey Garmash as Zef
• Gosha Kutsenko as Veper
• Andrei Merzlikin as Fank
• Mikhail Yevlanov as Rittmeister Chachu
• Anna Mikhalkova as Ordi Tader
• Sergei Barkovsky as Nolle Renadu
• Aleksey Gorbunov as Shurin
• Maksim Sukhanov as Dad
• Yuriy Tsurilo as the General
• Aleksandr Feklistov as Dever
• Kirill Pirogov as Svyokor
• Yevgeni Sidikhin as Teste
• Sergei Mazayev as Voldyr
• Leonid Gromov as Gramenau
• Vasili Savinov as Lesnik
• Vyacheslav Razbegayev as Krysolov
• Dimash Akhimov as Behemoth
• Ignat Akrachkov as Prosecutor's referent

Production

The film is a production of Art Pictures Studio, Non-Stop Productions and Russian STS Channel, with special effects by EyeScream Studio, Main Road Post and Quantum Creation FX.

The production was filmed in Crimea, Ukraine, with photography lasting for 10 months (February 14 – December 7, 2007). The film had a total budget of about $36.6 million, including $10 million for the film's promotion and $1 million of state donations.It the biggest budget Russian film ever made in the Russian Federation weighing in at $36.6 million and beating fellow Russian Blockbuster The Admiral which weighed in at $20 million.

Reception

The Inhabited Island was met with mixed reviews. Most praised the film for being surprisingly faithful to the novel. Some praised the film's visual effects, while others criticized the work of director and editor.^{[citation needed]} Mir Fantastiki review called the film a "chaotic mash of visual, dramatical and musical components, each of which separately has quite high quality". "The movie scatters into a mosaic of spectacular images, that don't comprise the consistent image of the world", agrees Total DVD

The film was a relative commercial failure. Despite grossing around $30 million from two parts summarily and ranking among the top-grossing films of Russia's modern cinema, it didn't repay its budget of $36 mln. The movie was released on DVD very shortly after it exited theatres, in the hope of covering the debt.

Boris Strugatsky, the only living of the book's co-authors, said the film is a "directors' success", noting its faithfulness to the novel. He praised the work of Serebryakov (Strannik), Bondarchuk (Umnik) and Garmash (Zef), but expressed disappointment over the work of Kutsenko (Vepr'), Mikhalkova (Ordi Tader) and Merzlikin (Funk). He noted Stepanov as one of the biggest success of the film, saying that "Maxim Kammerer is exactly as we imagined him".

See also

• The 9th Company

External links

• Official website
• Secondary official website
• The Inhabited Island at AllRovi
• Obitaemyy ostrov (2008) at the Internet Movie Database
• Obitaemyy ostrov: Skhvatka (2009) at the Internet Movie Database
• Fyodor Bondarchuk Directing New Film – The Inhabited Island, Charles Ganske