To the Stars by Hard Ways (1981) User Reviews (22)

But consider the context

[cema · 7/10 · 22 August 2003]

Cherez ternii... was released when I was a boy of 14 living in the Soviet Union and hungry for anything sci-fi. Well, this one fit the bill perfectly. With a typical 1980s story (ecological catastrophe, hints on the "soullessness of the capitalist society") and special effects somewhat more advanced than those of the British Dr. Who series, it still was two heads above anything else released in the USSR until then.

The film became an instant hit.

Now, keep in mind that we could not see the Star Wars or any other of the many Western sci-fi flicks of the time, with rare exceptions. And the sci-fi culture of the "socialist camp" was, no pun, campy. Special effects were typically like those of the early Dr. Who series (not that we had heard anything of Dr. Who either), and the plot simple as a nursery rhyme. In this context, Cherez ternii was a star indeed.

Plus, the nude scene, albeit short, was unusual for the Soviet cinematography of the time and rather attractive to the boys who had just advanced to the adolescent state.

All this made the fan base of the movie as wide as the Soviet Union itself, which is about as wide as Russia is now. Speaking of which, those boys of 1981 are today grownups, and so they decided to re-release Cherez ternii, with an improved picture and sound quality and somewhat rehashed frame sequence. If you understand Russian and decide to watch it, you can order it online.

As an adult, I would rate Chere Ternii k Zvezdam about the same as an average Star Trek episode, no better, no worse. Wish I could see Star Trek when I was a child.

The director of Cherez Ternii, R. Viktorov, made two more cult sci-fi films: Moskva-Kassiopeya (Moscow to Cassiopeia) and Otroki vo Vselennoj (Youths in the Universe). Check them out if you feel like it.

Oh, and btw, this Sandy Frank's version, Humanoid Woman, is total crap. But you knew that already, didn't you?

Humanoid Woman, get from behind the iron curtain!

[Coventry · 7/10 · 26 February 2011]

Whenever there's a Sci-Fi/Fantasy film festival doing a special around virtually untraceable movies, in my case the Offscreen Festival in Belgium, you simply must attend it as much as possible, because where else will you ever be offered the chance to see titles like "To the Stars by Hard Ways". The festival scheduled a theme around Sci-Fi movies from behind the Iron Curtain and, amongst more commonly known classics like the original "Solaris" and "In the Dust of Stars", they showed this peculiar but strangely poetic and compelling space allegory that consists of three main chapters. The film is set in futuristic Russia, where stereotypical house robots stroll around bleeping and people go to their jobs on distant planets. An outer space mission brings back an intergalactic female immigrant who has curly white hair behaves very nervously. The lead astronaut decides to take her into his house for research and to introduce her to earthly hospitality. The first chapter of "To the Stars by Hard Ways" revolves on the girl, Niya, integrating with her new family. She becomes friends with the astronaut's mother and adolescent son and learns about jealousy when she meets his girlfriend. In spite of her relatively happy new life, Niya has unclear but nightmarish flashbacks about what overcame her on her own planet. The tone of this first chapter is moody but tolerably sentimental. It's like a futuristic soap opera, but from the Soviet Union. The second chapter depicts the space trip to Niya's home planet Dessa. The nightmares and flashbacks stimulated her to slip aboard as a stowaway during Stepan's first official mission as an astronaut. The second chapter really is nothing more than a transition between the sequences on earth and on a distant planet. The middle section is rather dull and contain quite a few irrelevant and unnecessary comical interludes, like dropping off a passenger on his home planet called Ocean. He's a watery blubber thing who lives in a washing machine and is petrified of cats. The third and final chapter is the most interesting for the fans, as it concerns pure and genuine Sci-Fi full of desolate apocalyptic landscapes, malignant looking alien races and uncanny atmosphere. Niya's planet Dessa has become uninhabitable due to a massive industrial catastrophe while the tyrannical rules, called the Turanchoks, are selling clean oxygen at high prices. The final chapter of "To the Stars by Hard Ways" is exciting, often unsettling and very absorbing.

It's a bit of a shame that most comments around here (expect for those written by Russian users) are so harshly negative and mainly talking about the notorious MST3K treatment that the movie received in the late 80's. Now, I'm as much a fan of MST3K as anyone else, but there's a lot more underneath this film's campy surface and deserves some deeper analysis. People are complaining about the horrible dubbing, the terrible music, the cheap and campy special effects and the bad acting performances. I beg to differ on practically all points. Another major advantage about seeing this type of movies at a festival is that they respect cinema enough to seek for a 35mm version in the original language. Personally I liked the psychedelic music tunes and the special effects, well, … Naturally they're not very groundbreaking or on par with the contemporary super popular "Star Wars" franchise, but what do you expect from a film from a politically and hermetically sealed off country without much of a cinema culture. "To the Stars by Hard Ways" is primarily a very ambitious story-driven movie, from the hand of the acclaimed Russian novelist Kir Bulychyov and directed by Richard Victorov with great devotion and passion for Sci-Fi. The acting is terrific, especially from the central figure Yelena Metyolkina who made her first ever screen appearance in this film. "The the Stars by Hard Ways" definitely isn't without flaws, but it's a captivating experience that forces you to switch on your brain functions as well as all your senses. Recommended, but please watch the original version or the respectfully restored 2001 version.

A small Russian gem from the 80s

[Zumbs · 7/10 · 29 March 2007]

This movie begins when a spaceship discover another, derelict spaceship of unknown design and origin. They mount a salvage operation and discover that the crew are human of appearance but with considerable genetic differences. All but one (a woman) are dead.

Next, a group of scientists and officials discuss what to do with this alien called Neeya. They all want to study her, but should she be allowed to study humans as well? She doesn't seem to be able to communicate but has strong mental/telekinetic abilities. They decide to let her live in the house of one scientist with his family, under close surveillance.

As the story progresses we discover that she has a control center in her brain that allow others to take control over her - she has been designed like some sort of robot! Added to this story is a cast of interesting characters, a very unique alien, and lots of twists and turns to the main story.

The special effects are not as good as one have grown accustomed to from recent top-of-the-line Hollywood blockbusters, but they are okay, and manages to avoid being cheesy (which is the most important in my humble view).

All in all it is an excellent science fiction movie. I saw it in the theaters at a recent film festival in a restored version (from 2001 with English subtitles) and it was well worth the time and money. I give it 7/10 and recommend it to you all.

Prescient film about 1%s fighting attempts to combat Climate Change

[kyrat · 7/10 · 29 November 2014]

You have to remember you're watching a low-budget Soviet Sci_Fi film from 1980. So yeah, it has that 70's/80's sci-fi look and some cheesy effects (which I actually prefer to CGI, personally). The English translation is decent and doesn't leave anything out.

The section where she tries to live on Earth is a little slow and I did not really understand the connection to the film, but I enjoyed the opening bits and the parts on Dessa.

The imagery of the destroyed space lab and then later the gas masks and the posters in the tunnels was definitely ahead of its time.

Apart from the imagery which I enjoyed, the best reason to watch this film - is the prescient display of how people who make money off the destruction of the planet will fight to keep their wealth, even at the cost of the planet. We also see the politicians bribed with money and power to spread lies and fear in oder to fight any change. And even the average citizen can be preyed upon to work against their own interest.

Hard to comment

[Efenstor · 9/10 · 25 May 2005]

It's hard to comment this movie for the non-Russian auditory but I'll try to explain everything.

As far as I see nearly no one here knows the reasons why all the Soviet sci-fi had poor special effects. The reason is simple: in Soviet Union were NO commercial movie industry at all. Movie makers were making their movies and had month pays for their work. When they began making a new movie they showed the screenplay to the ministry of culture and if the ministry accepted it it allotted them some money from the state budget. Any sci-fi had never been that politically correct in comparison to war or revolution movies and thus the budget of such movies was ALWAYS very small. You can understand how much devotion to the work and art was needed to make such films in such conditions. This is the reason why soviet sci-fi movie makers always tried to put into their movies the things that were not dependent on budget. They put ideas. Soviet way of life and way of thinking was much enclosed in itself and developed enclosed. Influence of western culture was rather subtle because all the borders were closed. Contraband products were rare and highly illegal. No one have seen any of the non-Soviet sci-fi movies until the very end of 80's.

"Cherez ternii k zvyozdam" ("Per aspera ad astra" is the correct translation) have one of the best special effects ever made in the Soviet Union, seriously. So ignore them, they are not the central piece of the movie. The central piece is the ideas, the characters and the acting. The visions of the ecological catastrophe were rather fresh in 1981 for the whole world, the more in the Soviet Union where government always told everyone that the future is bright. According to the screenplay there should have been the ending title saying "All the scenes of the dying planet Dessa were shot at the territory of the Soviet Union". No need to say that that title was censored out (now it was added in the new re-edited DVD version).

I see that many of those who have seen "Cherez ternii k zvyozdam" misunderstand its plot. It's very strange because the plot is clear and straightforward, possibly it's all because of the poor translation. In fact only the concluding scene may be found somewhat strange because it has purely allegoric meaning: creation of the new life.

All acting is nearly perfect, no need to describe it, especially amazing are the roles of the economical tyrant Turanchox by Vladimir Fyodorov, Ambassador Rakan by Vadim Ledogorov and of course, Niya the Artificial Human by Yelena Metyolkina.

9 of 10. Find a well-translated version, turn on your brain and you'll understand why I rated it so.

Hey, it's Hedorah's distant relative!

[Mitora-san · 7 March 2002]

Cherez ternii k zvyozdam (aka. To Stars by the Hard Ways) is one strange, yet also rather campy, entertaining B-movie from Eastern Europe.

NOTE: This review is *not* on the "Americanized" version called "Humanoid Woman" which was rather hillarious on MST3K (screw you Sandy Frank!), this on the original Russo-Ukrainian version.

This doozy starts off with a group of Soviet Astronauts going to an abandoned Alien labratory on some planet is space, I guess. In a crazy weightless sequence, which is from what I've heard, filmed underwater, they run into a lone surviving alien woman who looks like Final Fantasy 7's Jenova after having chaemotherapy. Luckily, she does not touch anything, well, except for a picture of ol Gorbychov ^_~

When she gets to Earth, she learns Russian, uses telekinetics, floats off of the vegitation, does actrobatic stunts, getting used to Earth's climates and stranger yet, she hangs with "Rosie the Robot" with a vacuum-cleaning rear end!

However, everything on Earth is not peaches or creame, since there are some treasure hunters who want to use her at the archaeological dig, so they can become rich and famous. Then, the alien girl sees some people from her planet getting interviewed on TV. She regains her memory and sets back to her home world.

This is where it gets even funner! There are old wisemen midgets, clowns and harlequins wanting world domination and better yet, a raw seawge plie monster, possibly a distant relative of Hedorah from "Godzilla vs. Hedorah". Wouldn't surprise me, since they seem to be such similar beings, plus, they are very ummmmmm......different!

Anyways, this movie is on Eastern European cult movie that you have to see to believe!

Too boring

[ericstevenson · 4/10 · 25 December 2016]

It might be kind of hard for me to fairly judge this movie seeing as how I'm pretty sure the version I saw on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" was a pretty low quality one. I guess I'm just too lazy to look for the full version. It was one of their longest episodes, okay? They must have shown everything they could! This movie tells the story of a robot trying to live on Earth, but then she goes into space or something. It was just really confusing. The quality makes me hard to believe it was made in 1981. It looks more like the 1960's.

A movie like this just seems to go on too long. I'm just not used to films of this type going on this long. The costumes in this are really bad. The robots especially look terrible. It looks more like Halloween costumes. I admit there's a good scene or two. When the woman is dodging the bullets, it actually looks pretty cool. I guess the designs are a little interesting, but it doesn't amount to much. It's just not worth following. *1/2

Excellent movie, the best of russian/soviet sci-fi

[dimarec · 10/10 · 23 April 2003]

This movie belongs to the russian/soviet culture - this is the reason why so many negative comments are manifested here on IMDB. Besides, the Americanized version ("Humanoid Woman") was cropped and too much spoiled by nasty dubbing, that the whole film's concept has shifted. HOW COULD ONE SAY HERE: "there are some treasure hunters who want to use her at the archaeological dig, so they can become rich and famous"?!! There is nothing like that AT ALL!! And so on about other "comments" available here. The film has a very intelligent plot, written by the famous russian SF writer Kir Bulichev. The director's work is excellent. For example Niya's character is played by non-professional actress Elena Metyolkina, who actually was a model. It was the director's design just to introduce some elements of robot-like behavior. The director managed to make her play as good as possible. All other actors play their characters very persuadingly also. I just wonder how can one abuse the music - it is superb. Of course there should be correction for poor picture and sound quality, presented on the Americanized version. But this film deserves to be watched in its original version and with the TRUE dubbing - JUST TO UNDERSTAND IT. BTW now its remastered version on DVD exists, with both picture and sound quality being superb.

Summing up I want to say this film is not a cheap entertainment as some comments here suggest. It is a very kind, heartful, gentle, touching and thought-provoking movie. It is about love - love to people, love to the Earth. Of course there is certain naivity about the film, but it only adds positive to its atmosphere. I see everything quite balanced in it. Some may see flaws in film's imperfect setting (compared with "Alien" or "Star Wars" for example)- of course Holliwood was much more advanced in Sci-fi making (and a lot richer besides), than the Soviet cinema. But that does not seem too important.

Well, guess you have to be Russian to understand it.

[dimonnnn · 10/10 · 3 June 2003]

This is probably the finest example of soviet sci-fi movie-making. Great cast, great story and one-of-the-kind atmosphere, brought mostly by the efforts of the director.

The only reason I can find for all the negative reviews here is the simple fact of culture differences. In the West, US of A in particular with the exception of maybe Star Trek and 2001 all sci-fi movies fall into block-buster category, whereas in Soviet Union and perhaps even now in modern Russia sc-fi genre tries to be more on philosophical side (original Solaris for example). Result - nearly total unacceptance of such films by the western audience. Yes this movie does have some corny moments and looks childish, but, overall, the issues it deals with much more serious than today's space-action flicks.

And on the lighter note. Being myself a huge MST3K fan, I don't think it did the movie justice. Of course they riffed awfully dubbed Sandy Frank import, but still...

If you really want to check out this movie - get the DVD re-release with remastered 5.1 soundtrack and clean picture.

Could someone get that cat off the synthesizer!? *SPOILERS*

[quamp · 1/10 · 6 May 2002]

Cherez Ternii K Zvyozdam - a.k.a. Humanoid Woman is one of those films that you wonder why it was made in the first place. Soviet films usually consist of brightly-colored retellings of traditional Russian folktales and the like. They're usually obscenely cheerful and try to make you feel happy. This one doesn't. It has a surprisingly large budget for a Soviet Film (underwater scenes and using surplus cosmonaut stuff.) But that didn't save it. The whole plot is basically this: cosmonauts find a space station that has quite a number of clones on it. Taking the eldest of the clones back with them to their home, they try to accommodate her to life on earth. Seeing she won't fit in, they return her to her people. Upon arriving at her planet, they find that the place is in chaos. There was some kind of disaster that forced everyone underground. The final water supply for the people was poisoned, so when they cosmonauts try to do something with it, a large mass of white foam forms. Exciting in very few places, boring in most, this film is bad, but not the worst I've seen. I have to agree with Icehole's assessment of Niya: she's a brillo pad on a stick with bulging eyes. Worst of all is the incidental music, that sounds like a cat jumping around on a synthesizer in most places.

Avoid this one if at all possible.

The most romantic Soviet sci-fi film

[collegaproul-1 · 10/10 · 10 August 2005]

"Per Aspera Ad Astra" is really excellent film. It contains a lot of poetry elements. It is very sorry that American lookers cannot view this movie with the correct translation. The author of screenplay Kir Bulychov is a famous Soviet sci-fi writer. He is author of such books as "Girl From The Earth", "The Last War", "Wonders in Guslyar", "Witches' Cave", "The Settlement" etc. And fine music of composer Alexey Rybnikov. In 1970's in USSR Rybnikov was known as author of music for some children's movies. Some musical fragments from "Per Aspera Ad Astra" were used in famous Rybnikov's opera "Juno and Avos". The work of creators of this film was awarded in 1982 with State Prize of Soviet Union.

Why was this imported into the USA? *SPOILERS*

[icehole4 · 2/10 · 14 January 2002]

Humanoid Woman - a.k.a. Cherez ternii k zvyozdam is probably among the worst films ever made. This stinker has quite a bit to turn you off. Among the bad things are:

1. The main heroine is a stick with bulging eyes and a white brillo pad on her head. 2. The rest of the cast isn't much better. 3. The robot is everything you hate about robots and extremely fake looking. 4. The music alternates between an out-of-tune classical orchestra and an equally out-of-tune synthasizer. 5. Most of the latter half of the film is quite repetitious - showing the heroine clasping her hands backwards to create an invisible barrier.

Avoid this one at all costs. Not even MST3K could save it.

It doesn't surprise me that Sandy Frank imported this. He's known for importing quite a number of stinkers into the USA.

Good Soviet Sci-Fi

[RodrigAndrisan · 9/10 · 1 August 2017]

A bit long but worth seeing. The story of Kir Bulychyov and Richard Viktorov is interesting and honorable by the same Richard Viktorov along with Nikolay Viktorov. It made me think of Tarkovski, "Solaris" and "Stalker". Yelena Metyolkina is impeccable in the role of the Niyya clone. And all the other actors are very credible and convincing. The film has a little humor, thanks to several characters. The decorations and the costumes are very well done. And Aleksey Rybnikov's music is super special.

One of cheesiest Sandy Frank Imports

[Desdecardo78 · 1/10 · 22 April 2005]

Unfortunately, for Sandy Frank, I have only seen his movies via MST3K. Now that MST3K is gone it looks like he hasn't really done anything. Or I really don't like watching them without the MST3K comments.

This movie is proof of it. It stinks. There was a reason why this movie never, naturally, was released to the United States.

It was just like every other poorly written, directed, dubbed, edited, etc movie of its day. Instead of seeing it via, SciFi, eventually, we have this travesty.

There isn't much to say about it since if you want to watch it you should never watch it without the MST3K. It is like pizza sauce on a pizza. Its not a pizza without it.

If only it were appreciated for the sum of its parts...

[Piers1 · 9/10 · 12 March 2018]

..then people would understand it in its full beauty. It seems many reviewers condemn it for the particular - such as a poor example of scifi cinema robot or alien (the latter competing with that of Dark Star), or a sequence where a villain is found to be ticklish, which sets them oblivious as to the signifiance thereof and the movie's meta-narrative. For me, this film is of the school which performs a deftly deceptive lightness of touch around profound issues. But here, uniquely, we see utilised measured and studied absurdist interludes, and a romantic dreamlike dynamic. I write 'deceptive', because at its core, if you care to look deeper into the pool, there is a story which is a subtle yet quite profound exposition of and meditation on the nature of isolation; the yearning inherent in loneliness (who in their heart didn't hope for Neeya to be comforted with kisses and held in a loving embrace by Stepan before the end?) the transitory nature of being; how great beauty can exist alongside great tragedy; the whole wrapped in an environmental parable. Oh, and the soundtrack is powerfully evocative, like a fleeting nimbus of forgotten childhoods around quotidian adulthood; the shimmering whimsical harpsichord figure alternating with tone-poems and Kraftwerkian industrial-electro grooves on analogue synth are utterly fitting.

Dull and confusing, not a good combo

[blott2319-1 · 3/10 · 20 February 2021]

I guess I'm not capable of looking past the flaws in sci-fi B-movies. I don't have a ton of experience with them, but based on my limited time watching B-movies, I struggle to ignore the awful production value. To the Stars by Hard Ways is a Russian film about an alien clone that is discovered in space, lacking memories of what she is there to do. The plot moves extraordinarily slow, and is even segmented out into 2 chunks that are totally different from one another. At first she is on Earth learning to assimilate into life here, and then for the second half she sneaks aboard a spaceship to complete the mission she was originally sent to Earth in order to accomplish. I think both movies could have been watchable, but there was no strong reason to jam them both together into one story. I felt the movie lacked focus, and that definitely hurt it, particularly when they are trying to make a point by drawing an analogy between events in this film and things going on in the USSR at the time.

My biggest struggle with To the Stars by Hard Ways, aside from the slow pacing, were the effects. There are a lot of sci-fi things going on in this movie, but it was extremely hard to track what exactly was occurring when the visual effects were rendered so poorly. I understand if you are making a film on a limited budget, but then you have to write around that budget so that you can find ways to convey what is happening without always showing it. I was confused more than once, and I was trying hard to figure out what they were showing me. There are also some odd extra layers to the story in To the Stars by Hard Ways that did nothing to add to the plot of the film. For instance, I couldn't figure out why we cared about an overly-sensitive octopus creature, that is picky about how he is treated. They even stop the entire plot of the film for a few minutes when the octopus reaches his home planet. I got next to nothing out of To the Stars by Hard Ways, aside from confusion. I feel like, even though it is free to watch on Youtube, it's still not worth anyone taking the time.

Wait, Sovjet SciFi did THIS?!

[jmalmsten · 8/10 · 25 July 2019]

Sovjet era scifi has long been a frustrating fascination for me. Oftentimes the ideas they want to explore are more interesting than the western cokiecutter outings. Yet their technical limitations and quest for pleasing heads of state tends to neuter what could be a great film.

In many ways. This film is both. For its time and place my jaw dropped multiple times by the sheer playfulness in execution, the visuals are surprisingly grand, the editing snappy, and there are some very fun ideas... In a film that in the end is almost forced into an allegory about the dangers posed to environments by greed and unchecked capitalism.

The editing and shot choice is somewhere between 60s era new wave and even modern day Hideaki Anno (sorry about the random anime reference, but man, it felt like his style) with jow haphazardly it cuts out fat in transportation and mastering the blocking of characters on the wide sovscope screen (tech specs tell me it's 35mm negative. But it sure feels like 65mm). The imaginitative designs feels like a Moebius Space Opera. Say what you want about sovjet era sci fi... But it sure looks like they had fun making this one.

So, the story itself is probably the weakest point. For large chunks it flirts a bit much with the edge of aimless meandering. I wasnever really bored, but I did wonder at times what the goal was, why were we watching these scenes?

To be perfectly honest, I decided to watch this film, I found it by random chance and put it on my youtube playlist for movies people have uploaded. The only real reason for me to embark on its trip tonight was because half the title happens to be Ad Astra, the same as a coming Hollywood film, and I got curious wether this had any relation to it. It now seems not.

But I am very happy to have tried it out. It reignited a need for me to continue to seek out these forgotten space operas. Even if this one had a few pacing niggles.

Oh, and the youtube upload I watched seem to have english burned in dubtitles, because there was a few places noone talked but dialog kept being shown on screen. I could follow the story alright anyway.

Very Solid Iron Curtain SF

[superfeature · 10/10 · 18 November 2018]

If you can get past the lo-fi robots there is a very decent film here. I think it deserves favorable comparison to the ultra-expensive Blade Runner sequel, which I liked less than this film. Clever use of industrial wastelands on our planet comment on the eco-disasters of another world. The female lead is fine. Good effects and a story that might move a little too casually for the modern mind still deserve a much wider audience - I predict this will eventually become a cult classic. Here's hoping for a nice looking print on Blu-ray.

Solaris after a lot of vodkas and those special mushrooms

[BrianSewell · 10/10 · 13 July 2006]

Watch this film knowing it's a pile of rubbish and you realise how good it is. Communism was a strange thing, it did not want their people to stray to the decadent west, so they tried to do there own sci fi epics. I have a communist cuckoo clock, it is a very naked, plain non Bavarian cuckoo clock with a plastic cuckoo, but it was made so that there people had no reason to envy the west and this is another ''cuckoo clock'' it has a bald woman, a robot that is made out of various laundry containers turned upside down with odds and ends stuck on it, maybe bits of my cuckoo clock as well (obsessed or what). I won't explain the plot, but if you enjoyed Solaris, The singing ringing tree etc then get this if you can.

Soviet era science fiction movie

[myriamlenys · 8/10 · 11 February 2023]

Perhaps it's useful to begin by saying that I watched the long version (aka the Director's Cut) of "Cherez ternii k zvyozdam". This version makes for a very long movie consisting of a part 1 and a part 2, separated by an intermission. Viewers blessed with an unshakeable patience can watch the whole in one sitting, but it may be wiser to watch both halves separately.

I can't tell you anything about the short version, but the long version is quite intelligible, with all its connective tissue present and working. So what we've got here is a Soviet era science fiction movie about an android rescued from a ruined alien spacecraft. The android, which looks like an unusually beautiful woman, is transported to Earth, where a cultured family of scientists and explorers will function as a foster family. Gradually it becomes clear that the disaster survivor was part of an experiment undertaken by a highly controversial scientist. And the rest, dear reader, is for you to discover by yourself...

"Cherez" treats a number of classic science fiction themes, such as the exploration of space and the interaction with intelligent aliens. The movie is also notable for its warning about the dangers of pollution and environmental degradation : the second part contains a chilling evocation of a once-beautiful planet ruined by the greed, short-sightedness and division of its inhabitants. If this sounds disquietingly like our own good planet Earth, well, so it should. (According to the movie, the future will bring us highly efficient space "sanitation crews" specifically charged with cleaning up whole worlds. These sanitation crews flit around like miracle-working angels, helpfully changing corrosive rain into life-giving water and so on. It's a lovely idea, but very much an instance of wishful thinking. Even in the year 28 500 the repair of serious environmental damage is likely to involve long, hard and costly toil.)

The various creators of "Cherez" can thank lead actress Yelena Metyolkina for her rare and fragile beauty. Delicate, long-limbed and slender, Metyolkina seems to belong to a species different from us clumsy homo sap.

It's difficult to slap a rating on the movie ; I thought it started out very well, before gradually descending into space opera cliché (or, near the end, even space opera camp). I'm giving it 8 stars, mainly for its ambition and its strong, striking visuals.