Claudio Carvalho In 2157, people lives in peace and progress on Earth, respecting ecology and space travels are very common. The pilot Maksim Kammerer (Vasiliy Stepanov) is hit by an asteroid and he crashes his spacecraft in the unknown planet Saraksh. Maksim gets stranded in the planet and is captured by a local and arrested. Maksim finds a planet in the stage of Earth in the 20th century, with war, social problems and destroyed ecology. He is sent to the capital escorted by Corporal Gai Gaal (Pyotr Fyodorov), but they are attacked and he escapes. Maksim protects the waiter Rada Gaal (Yuliya Snigir) against a stalker and he learns that she is Gai's sister. Then Gai recommends Maksim to his Captain Chachu (Mikhail Evlanov) and the earthling joins the guard. However Maksim discover that this repressed society is ruled by an oligarchy called Unknown Fathers. Further there are anti-ballistic defense towers that the locals believe that are for their protection that are actually broadcast towers that are used to control the minds of those that are susceptible to the broadcast that are called degenerates. Maksim leaves the guard and joins the degenerates to destroy the towers. However, he is captures with Rada and Gai. Now he is plotting with other prisoners how to destroy the central transmission to the towers and leave the people have free will."Obitaemyy Ostrov", a.k.a. "Prisoners of Power", is a complex story with a messy screenplay and absolutely lost in translation. I have just watched this movie on DVD twice, the first time spoken in Russian with Portuguese subtitles; then I saw it again dubbed in Portuguese with Portuguese subtitles. Surprisingly the dialogs in Portuguese and the subtitles in Portuguese are different. Based on this reality, my conclusion is that the Brazilian viewer misses many points in the translation. It is very difficult to follow and understand the society in planet Sarakash for those like me that have never read the sci-fi novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. There is no explanation, for example, for the curse word "Massaraksh". My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Prisioneiros do Poder" ("Prisioners of the Power")

khaktus ... for the movie cooked from all possible clichés. Let's call it "a movie of the future": no interesting dialogues, no interesting character dynamics, sexually decent, a product. Not only lacking a point, but totally chaotic at the end. Much like a ruined orgasm. Actually, there were lots of completely confusing moments all along. Main character was so artificially angelic beautiful - in a nonsense commercial-romantic way, that it was almost disgusting to watch.The only positive things was a vision of the perverse futuristic world, dark, totalitarian, rainy, muddy, technocratic, but also kind of futuristic baroque. A bit reminding me of 5th element, or Chronicles of Riddick. (Or just today.) So much more interesting plots, events, interaction could have been set in this environment.It's 2011 ... and you want a science-fiction? Watch Aliens, Avatar, Abyss, Terminator or at least Matrix.

jan-ptak I must say I am very surprised how good this movie is. For that particular convention (sci-fi) this movie have very good and logical plot (movie is based on Brothers Strugacki book), very good special effects and its well played. A guy crash his spaceship on a foreign planet and it is caught by some weirdo. Whole planet is govern by a military junta or something alike. It turns out that population is govern by some sort of radiation. I don't want to tell more not to spoil the story but bear in mind that Strugaccy Brothers are very famous sci-fi writers and the story had very strong points. For a long time I didn't have so much fun watching sci-fi movie (last favorite one was "Serenity"). Straight to the point - if You can - watch this movie. One comment to the cast - main male character looks like Ken. His smile got my nerves - even my wife agreed that he looks too perfect but that was for sure the director idea.

graygeneral This attempt at bringing a Strugatski brothers novel to the modern Russian screen is without a doubt a success.A little about the plot: young explorer Maksim Kammerer crash lands on Sarakhsh, a world enveloped by nebula gasses where people have never seen the stars. The Unknown Fathers, a group of powerful oligarchs, brainwash the population to hate other nations. Kammerer, aloof in his superiority, sets out to free the people of Sarahksh of oppression and paranoia. I wont ramble on - suffice to say that Bondarchuk has done well, considering the sheer scale of the novel. Vasiliy Stepanov (as Maksim Kammerer) is sexy, cool and a blond head taller than his alien companions (a fine nod to the novel and a detail I did not expect). He was also most excellent in the action scenes.Bondarchuk shines in his portrayal of Umnik (literally the Clever One). I especially enjoyed the scenes of him writhing in agony in the bath. A great performance. I feel compelled, after reading some of the other comments, to say that the novel, like this movie, is often comical...Direction-wise there are some minor continuity errors and a few places where the pace slows unexpectedly, but the film sticks quite closely to the novel and this may not have been avoidable.Compared Konstantin Lopushansky's 2006 adaptation of Gadkie Lebedi (highly recommended to scifi fans, this brooding picture seems to have slipped the under the radar), the film is of course rather crude and soulless - but that would be like comparing a novel by Banks to one by Lem.I recommend it to everyone and will be waiting for film two (the adaptation can only be truly judged then) and a directors cut of the two together in a nice Hollywood package.