Silver Heads

Serebryanye golovy

Russia

1998

84 Min

Black and White

Russian

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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DIR Vladimir Maslov, Yevgeny Yufit

SCR Vladimir Maslov, Yevgeny Yufit

CAST Sergei Chernov, Vasili Deryagin, Valeri Krishtapenko, Nikolai Marton, Vladimir Maslov, Aleksandr Polovtsev, Nikolai Rudik, Tatyana Verkhovskaya, Daniil Zinchenko

ED Vladimir Maslov, Yevgeny Yufit

The aim of experiments carried out by three scientists in a distant forest bunker is to create an ecologically ideal creature by crossing the cells of a human being and a tree. Soon the threesome is in shortage of the living material – the locals they are using for their experiments. Despite everything, the cool-headed scientists want to go on experimenting.. –arsenals.lv

They continue their experiments on themselves, attempting to fuse trees with humans by shoving wooden spikes into their bodies using a variety of odd methods, including a complicated, mechanical, wooden iron-maiden. In the meantime, soldiers are trying to track down and kill the forest creatures now led by a strange psychic who fights violent battles for them. Amidst all these highly strange happenings, we get some musings and discussions on human mutation, progress and transformation with a mix of mysticism and science, footage of science improving on siamese twins by cutting them apart, and other strange odds and ends. –thelastexit.net

Written and directed by Vladimir Maslov and Yevgeny Yufit, Serebryanye golovy is an elegant parody of Andrei Tarkovsky’s sci-fi cinema in particular but also the whole science-fiction movie genre. The transformative machine that mixes up those molecules is a box into which the subject enters naked; he takes a seat and is bombarded by electric current and wooden spikes that stab him. This parody of crucifixion takes aim at Tarkovsky’s obsessive Christianity.

Frequent Sokurov cinematographer Aleksandr Burov assists the filmmakers in creating a gorgeous film, but the shots have been beautifully conceived in the first place. Science, as usual, pursues idealistic dreams with little thought of more immediate, practical consequences. Once again, scientists epitomize their species. And are out of shape. –grunes.wordpress.com

Director

Yevgeny Yufit

Evgenii Iufit (Yevgeny Yufit) was born in 1961 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In the early 1980s he began working as a painter and art photographer. In 1985 he set up the first independent film studio in Russia, MZHALALA FILM, which brought together artists, writers, directors and others sympathetic to radical aesthetic experimentation.

At this studio Iufit made a number of films which have been shown at the world’s major film festivals including Montreal, Locarno, Toronto, Rotterdam, and Moscow. His film, Daddy, Frost is Dead, was awarded the Grand Prix at the Rimini Film Festival in Italy. Iufit’s paintings and photographs have been shown in major exhibitions of contemporary Russian art since 1985, at the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunstahalle, Dusseldorf; Kunstverein, Hanover, and The Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City. Works by Iufit are to be found in museums, galleries, and private collections both… read more

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livedo

14May11

the way the ideas and some of the things that re-occur in his movies ( like the older men engaged in totally childish activites, or homosexuality) have a totally different interpretation in the late soviet mentality that he was working off of then they would in our 2011 post-USSR one.

livedo

13May11

oh man, can we cut down the summary? It basically give away most of the movie for people who haven't seen it. Yufit is a really oddball. Its almost impossible to get a accurate sense of a lot of the content in his movies without knowing people who lived in soviet era of 50-70s ( aka all the older authority figures in his films) and people who grew up in 80s (the heros in Papa and Killed by lightening).