Review of The Ugly Swans (2006)
Konstantin Lopushansky (director).
A well-travelled writer is investigating so-called Aquatters (Mokretsy), who are officially mutants or disfigured victims of a disease in a near-future Russia struck by climate change and the UN’s analysis paralysis. The writer’s daughter, and other children, exhibit great intelligence in a school run by these Aquatters. They are doing nothing to prevent the authorities from killing them all through chemical warfare.
Science fiction. Lopushansky directs another script based on the work of the brothers Strugatsky and again written with Rybakov, once more treating the idea of unorthodox extraterrestrials. Sort of a Village of the Damned (1960) meets Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), but meditative. The limited palette looks good.