Hard To Be A God (2013) - Aleksei German

The last film of Aleksei German's career, Hard To Be A God is a science fiction film taking place on the planet Arkanar, a humannoid society that is in the midst of its own Medieval Age.  When humans discover this Earth-like planet, a group of scientists  are sent to the planet Arkanar, living amongst the alien barbarians.  Officially collecting data on this newly discovered people, the scientists attempt to help the local civilization, with hopes of setting them on the right path of progress.  The scientists cannot interfere in the planet's political or societall delvelopments, as they themselves begin to regress to an earlier stage of development and morality.  Aleksei German's Hard To Be A God is a bleak and engrossing epic that's sure to be a challenging experience for most viewers due to its brutal depiction of darker ages and its ideas centered around humanity.  The world that Aleksei German creates in this film is truly remarkable, depicting a brutal and crude world where there is a cheapness to human life, with higher educated ideas about morality and life not yet to developed among humanity.  There is a rambunctious energy to this whole film that is unnerving yet engaging, with imagery that is sure to stay with me long after the end credits of this film.  Treated by the natives of this planet as some type of divine presense, the scientists become godlike but also helpless in the faces of such harsh brutality and chaos, with German's film exploring the relationship between humanities brutality and intellectual and moral progress.  Hard To Be A God suggests that human progress is almost inevitably cruel and violent, with religion being an effective catalyst of oppression that blindly obstructs science and intellectual enlightment.  The scientists are symbolic of God in the film, men who have far more advanced knowledge than those around them, unable to assist or interfere with the natural order of history.  A truly one of a kind experience, Aleksei German's Hard to Be A God is a complex and challenging film which attempts to explore the harshness that so frequently goes hand-and-foot with mankind's further enlightment.

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