A Russian Space Oddity

 by Ben Soton

Sputnik (2020). Director: Egor Abramenko; Writers: Oleg Malovichko, Andrey Zolotarev; Stars: Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk, Pyotr Fyodorov. 113 minutes. Classification age 15.

Is this first-time director Egor Abramenko’s take on the former Soviet Union? Does it reflect the views of the Putin government or is it just plain science fiction?
    Whatever the reason, Sputnik, a film sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Culture, was a blockbuster when it was released in Russia last year.
    The film is set in 1983, just before the treacherous Gorbachov regime began a policy of internal destruction that they called glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). The film is part science fiction, part political thriller and even part horror. As the film reaches its climax however, it contains an element that is deeply and perhaps uniquely Russian.
    The story revolves around a Soviet cosmonaut, Konstantin Veshnyakov (played by Pyotr Fyodorov), who returns to Earth with a dead crew and his body inhabited by an alien life form. For reasons of safety and public morale the cosmonaut is kept in the launch site in Kazakhstan. Meanwhile a doctor, Tatyana Klimova (played by Oksana Akinshina), is sent to remove the alien from his body.
    Klimova is portrayed as a maverick who thinks outside the box, whist the Soviet Union is portrayed as rigid and hostile to change. On the other hand, the Soviet Union in the form of Colonel Smiradov, the base commander (played by Fedor Bondarchuk), needs people like Klimova to deal with an unorthodox situation. This was the argument put forward by those who supported glasnost and perestroika. This was not to say that the problems faced by the 1980s Soviet Union did not require thinking outside the box; this did not, however, justify the Gorbachov clique destroying the box and selling off its remaining contents.
    Early scenes in the film depict the boredom of space travel; so different from the excitement of Star Wars and Star Trek. But there are some nods towards the Hollywood SF genre. For a start, there is a similarity with Alien, Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, whilst the creature inhabiting Veshnyakov’s body is remarkably similar to the hostile planet-consuming aliens of Independence Day. But Klimova, using science to remove a bestial creature from the body of an otherwise healthy man, makes Sputnik a more complex story than Alien and its spin-offs.
    With much of the film focused on the relationship between Veshnyakov and Klimova, parallels emerge with Beauty and the Beast, the French fairy tale which has travelled the world like the original Sputnik, the first satellite in space.
    It is said that the Soviets cut corners with their space programme and other areas of national security; however, the Soviet Union never saw a single day of peace in its 70-year lifespan. It faced aggression from its foundation in the form of imperialist intervention. In the Second World War the Red Army beat back and eventually crushed the Nazi hordes, and during the Cold War the Soviet Union was forced to spend considerable resources on nuclear weapons. Despite this, its achievements were enormous: the elimination of poverty; racial and gender equality; its assistance to the anti-imperialist struggle. The USSR achieved great feats in science, education and the arts, and its victories after the Second World War benefitted many beyond its borders – including this country. It is to the Soviet Union that we owe the National Health Service. With this in mind, the Soviet Union and its pioneering ventures into space need to be remembered – but not in this way!
    Nevertheless, it’s well worth watching if you’re into the SF scene. The film is available on DVD and on streaming video platforms, including Amazon Prime and Netflix.

A jaunt into Saxon England

by Ben Soton

The Evening and The Morning by Ken Follett,  Publisher: Macmillan (2020). Hardback: 832pp, RRP £25. Paperback: 912pp, RRP £9.99. Kindle: 712pp, file size 1203 KB, RRP £9.99.

Ken Follet’s latest novel, The Evening and The Morning is a prequel to his 1989 book The Pillars of the Earth. The two novels have both obvious similarities as well as differences. The Pillars of the Earth was set in the early 12th Century and focused around the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge in south-west England. It was set to the backdrop of the Anarchy, a civil-war between rival claimants to the English throne; where the god-fearing people of Kingsbridge were caught in the middle.
    The Evening and The Morning is set in the same location but almost two hundred years earlier starting in 997AD. This was the end of the Dark Ages, a period when Anglo-Saxon England was still suffering from Viking raids and the feudal system was not fully developed. Social relations were somewhat confused. Slavery still existed; whilst there was also evidence of men having multiple wives (polygamy) and women with multiple husbands (polyandry). The latter being a feature of primitive communism. Meanwhile the power of the Church had not been fully established; which explains the tolerance of a variety of marital practices. England was in a process of cultural shift; from part of Scandinavia towards Continental Europe; a process completed by the Norman Conquest in 1066.
    Follet’s politics are that of the Extreme Centre; which ranges from the Blairite and now Starmerite wing of the Labour Party to the pro-Remain wing of the Tory Party and encompasses miscellaneous grouping such as the Lib-Dems and Change UK. They accept the system has one or two faults which can be rectified if you had more honest and competent people running it. Sometimes better people should be allowed to rise up through the ranks replacing less competent people at the top. However, under no circumstances should the system itself be challenged. This world view is regularly represented in his novels.
    The author successfully describes 10th Century England; the brutality of slavery, hypocrisy on the part of some of the clergy, rampant corruption and constant fear of attack. This is the world the three main characters find themselves drawn into. Ragna, a Norman noblewoman married to an Anglo-Saxon lord; Edgar, a craftsman with entrepreneurial skills and Aldred, a monk with a desire to root out corruption with the Church. These three characters find their own ways at improving the system from within. As the story progresses, they find their lives increasingly draw together.
    The Evening and The Morning can on one hand be seen as Game of Thrones set to the backdrop of actual historical events. Equally it has parallels with more modern stories of uncovering corporate malpractice and putting things to right; without actually challenging the corporation itself. Little do the participants of this story know that in less than a century the corporation known as Anglo-Saxon England will soon be subject to a hostile takeover in the name of the Norman Conquest in 1066.

Dreams of Gold in Victorian New Zealand

by Ben Soton

The Luminaries (2020), TV mini-series. Stars: Eve Hewson, Eva Green, Himesh Patel. Produced by: BBC Two, Southern Light Films and Working Title Television. Distributed by: BBC Two (UK) (TV) and TVNZ (2020) (New Zealand) (TV).

The BBC’s most recent historical drama The Luminaries is based on Eleanor Catton’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name. Set during the New Zealand Gold Rush of the 1860s, it combines mysticism, suspense and romance.

The main character Anna Wetherill (played by Eve Hewson) arrives in New Zealand to make a new life for herself.  She finds herself cheated and forced into prostitution and opium addiction by Lydia Wells (played by Eva Green), a brothel madam with a side-line in fortune telling.

I was expecting a poorly lit, barely audible drama, rather like the adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn a few years ago. Instead I was pleasantly surprised; a multi-layered plot is emerging based around the lives of the settlers with some reference to the native Maori population. Like any historical drama, it raises several questions.

It raises the question of different models used by British imperialism in the 19^th century. The Indian model was used in places of high population with high levels of economic development; local elites needed to be co-opted as well as forced into accepting Imperial domination. Both India and later Egypt had established textile industries, which were later destroyed in order to protect British industry. This resulted in a native population ruled over by a British administration with varying degrees of collaboration by the local elite.

The alternative was the Australian model applied to areas of low economic development, consisting of hunter gatherer or primitive agricultural societies. This model resulted in the settlement of large numbers of British or Irish migrants, and the displacement of or even genocide against the local population. This resulted in Anglophile colonies such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand that were largely loyal to the Mother Country and were the first parts of the British Empire to achieve self-government.

New Zealand contained elements of both. The Treaty of Waitangi (1840) was signed between Maori Chiefs and the British Government, and today elements of Maori culture have been integrated into New Zealand society. A famous example is the country’s All Blacks national rugby team chanting the Haka, a Maori war dance. But out of a population of around five million, over 70 per cent is of British and other European descent and the Maoris remain second-class citizens.

The drama also exposes the myth of the Gold Rush. Successful prospecting requires economies of scale and large quantities of equipment and capital, making success for the individual prospector unlikely. As Anna is told in Episode One, few made money from individual prospecting, the most successful are those who provide services for the prospectors such as the selling of mining equipment, opening guest houses and the provision of food, drink and entertainment, including prostitution.

The Luminaries goes some of the way to exposing the human misery that entwined 19^th century capitalism – in particular, the role of the sex trade and the treatment of women.  The racial angle concentrates on the position of Chinese labour, which shows the link between opium trade and British imperialism. We see this as Anna’s life goes from bad to worse, whilst hoping to be rescued from her sorry state.