Days of Eclipse (1988) Dni zatmeniya (original title)

Director:

Aleksandr Sokurov

Writers:

Yuri Arabov (writer)
Pyotr Kadochnikov (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

1988 (Soviet Union)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Turkmenistan | Cult Director | Black And White Segues Into Color | Corpse

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Aleksei Ananishnov	...	Malyanov
Eskender Umarov	...	Vecherovsky
Irina Sokolova	...	Malyanov's Sister
Vladimir Zamanskiy	...	Snegovoy
Kirill Dudkin	...	Gluchov
Aleksei Yankovsky	...	Snegovoy's Father
Viktor Belovolsky	...	Gubar
Sergei Krylov	...	Little Boy (as Seryozha Krylov)

Directed by
Aleksandr Sokurov

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Yuri Arabov		writer
Pyotr Kadochnikov		writer
Arkadiy Strugatskiy		writer
Boris Strugatskiy		writer

Original Music by
Yuri Khanin

Cinematography by
Sergey Yurizditskiy

Film Editing by
Leda Semyonova

Production Design by
Yelena Amshinskaya

Sound Department
Vladimir Persov	....	sound

Production Companies

• Lenfilm Studio
• Studio Troitskij Most

Distributors

• Films sans Frontières (1992) (France) (theatrical)
• Prodimag (2005) (Spain) (DVD) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"Dni zatmeniya" - Soviet Union (original title)

Runtime:

139 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Company:

Lenfilm Studio

Pretentious, unwatchable mess from a director that has done better

In the final years of the Soviet Union, a Russian doctor arrives in a godforsaken town in the middle of a desert in Turkmenia (the place that would become a few years later the independent state of Turkmenistan, one of the least known and more mysterious countries of the world). His mission there is not clear, though it is apparently to investigate why old believers get fewer ailments than other people. But soon, a series of mysterious things will happen to him.

Shot in a very opaque style and with a photography almost drained of color, this movie promises in the first quarter of an hour that it might be interesting if very unconventional, but it soon descends into absurdity. It ends up being a complete mess.

Director Alexander Sokurov has made some interesting films after this (Russian Ark, for instance, or some of his documentaries) but this, one of his first movies, is basically unwatchable.

Filmed mostly with a fly on the wall - style (there are very few closeups), the shortcomings of this film are too many to mention. But to mention a few, the actors look like zombies, delivering lines with zero expression (this is fault of the director, not of them). The plot becomes incomprehensible – not that the director seems to care much about that. And though this was shot in present day Turkmenistan, very few Turkmen appear – mostly as far away props.

Based on a well regarded science fiction story by the Arkady and Boris Strugatsky –though in no way this movie can be called a SF film, it's basically a pretentious art movie.