Unexpected Encounters

I love discovering good movies that seem to have been ignored or forgotten. This is one of them. The film is based on a sci-fi novel by Strugatsky brothers called Space Mowgli and is quite faithful to the book. The only difference I believe there is with the book is that the planet about to be colonised is meant for humans from Earth and not for a dying alien civilisation from another planet that humans are helping as in the book, but that has no effect on the story.

This film is made for television in the cold war era and its budget is quite limited. Yet, I think they've done a marvellous job. Most of the sets are quite good and done thoughtfully. The spacesuits, the inside of the ship, the landscape of the alien planet with some really nice shots, the androids - all is there. Although only a small part of the ship is shown from the outside and the wreckage of an old ship is very unconvincing.

I liked the acting and the directing, and the dialogues were adapted in a somewhat clearer way than the Russian production for TV of the same novel called Malysh which also lacked any set designs to speak of. The sound and music were also very good. But watch it mostly for the story, it's interesting. The little boy is a good actor as well. The film can be found with English subtitles over the internet.