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A team of scientists travels from Earth to the planet Arkanar, which is inhabited by a race of humans identical to those of Earth. Their civilization has not progressed beyond a civilization that is culturally and technologically nearly identical to medieval Europe. One reason may be the militantly anti-intellectual attitude of Arkanar: Anyone whom the inhabitants of the planet consider to be an "intellectual" is instantly executed. The Earth scientists are ordered not to interfere and to conceal their identities; but one of them, Rumata, wishes to stop the senseless murders of brilliant minds and is forced at last to pick a side.
Plot
The entirety of the film takes place on the planet Arkanar. No Renaissance has occurred to allow the natives to progress beyond the same stage as the Middle Ages in Europe. What brief glimpses of science or culture that arise are ruthlessly suppressed by the proto-fascist police-state government. What we see of Arkanar is unrelieved bedraggled squalor: The people are filthy; they dress in absurdly shabby clothes and live in shacks; the streets are permanently muddy and the sky is permanently dreary.
About thirty Earth scientists are sent to the planet incognito, in order to observe the evolution of the society. They are barred from influencing the local civilization or interfering with the city's natural course. One of the Earthmen has been living on the planet for twenty years, in a large house filled with his multitudes of slaves and servants. Disguised as a Noble Don named Rumata of Estor, he has become identified among some of the townspeople as the son of Goran (a local pagan god). In duels, Rumata does not kill his adversaries, but only cuts off their ears, as it is forbidden for him to kill. At night, he dreams of murder. He is tasked with saving the intellectuals of this society - bookworms and sages - who are constantly persecuted by the so-called Gray troops under the leadership of Don Reba, who through usurpation and oppression has become the all-powerful ruler.
From Muga, his head slave, Rumata learns of a certain tobacco-grower from Tobacco Street who is supposedly one of the "clever" inhabitants of Arkanar. Rumata hides Arkanarian scientists on rocky islets among the swamps that surround the city. From time to time, other Earthmen also gather in these swamps, progressively more alienated from each other, and constantly inebriated (as is Rumata). A doctor named Budakh, who was supposed to be taken to shelter, has disappeared along with his escort. Desiring to find out Budakh's fate, Rumata arranges an appointment with the king and Don Reba, but fails to learn anything about Budakh. In the saloons, Rumata meets his friend Pampa, a washed-up local baron. After a drunken night, Rumata is suddenly arrested in the palace by Grays and taken to Don Reba for interrogation. Reba informs him that he has become the Master of the Order, a militant religious sect from the other end of the country, and tries to find out if Rumata really is a god or not. Rumata manages to convince Reba of his divine powers, and he is released after being given a collection of security-clearance bracelets.
The black-robed monks of the Order invade the city during the night and seize power in Arkanar. The king and his family are killed and the courtiers are publicly executed. In the morning, Rumata goes to the torture chambers of the Tower of Joy and rescues Budakh and Baron Pampa, who also happened to end up there. While trying to escape from the city, Pampa is killed with arrows. Afterward, Rumata talks with Budakh, trying to figure out how the scientist would advise a god to rectify the state of affairs in the world of Arkanar. Budakh's answer does not satisfy the Earthman: The weak will replace the strong, but this will not stop the constant struggle for power. Rumata and Budakh return home. Rumata's castle has survived an attack during the night, although two servants were killed, including Uno, a young troublemaker and Rumata's favorite. Defeated and tired, Rumata meets Arata the Hunchback, a feared revolutionary figure, who tries to persuade him to lead a slave uprising with his Earth technology. Rumata refuses; time will pass, exploitation and slavery will recur in a never-ending cycle. Having given Arata a protective bracelet of the Order, Rumata orders the servants to drive him away with sticks. The next day, Ari, Rumata's lover on Arkanar, is killed by an arrow shot through the back of her head with a crossbow. Right then, soldiers of the Order burst into Rumata's house in search of heretics, guided by a certain crippled monk, by whose description it is easy to guess that it is Arata. Furious at the murder of Ari, Rumata declares to their leader, a former university student named Arima, that he will kill them all, and soon makes good on his threat. He kills Arima first. After disemboweling Arima's body, revealing his still-beating heart, Rumata sets off for the city and massacres everyone in his way.
A group of Earthmen, including the Elder Don Condor, make their way through the ruins of Arkanar. They discover mountains of corpses, including those of Arata and Don Reba. From the conversation among the Earthmen, it becomes clear that Ari died from an arrow shot by Arata with the aim of setting Rumata off on the monks of the Order, but also being killed himself. Finally, Don Condor and Pashka discover Rumata himself, sitting alone in a puddle in his pajamas. He refuses their offer to return him to Earth. “A god can get tired too,” he says to Condor. Don Condor silently accepts Rumata's decision. Finally, Rumata notes the historical sequence with a grave warning: "Where Grays triumph, Blacks always come in the end." He advises Don Condor what to write in the report on his actions: "Tell him that it is hard to be a god." With this, Don Condor and Pashka leave. Exhausted, Rumata falls asleep.
During the winter, two of the bookworms hiding in the swamps quarrel and kill each other. Rumata has stayed behind in the land of Arkanar, becoming a part of their world. He is older, graying, sports a new pair of glasses, and sets off into the snowy distance with his various slaves and horsemen. Meanwhile, a little girl, and her father walk through the snow. The girl asks her father what he thinks of Rumata's saxophone playing, which they hear as they leave. The father isn't sure what he thinks. "It makes my tummy hurt," the little girl responds. The screen fades from the white landscape to black.
Filming began in the autumn of 2000 in the Czech Republic and continued off-and-on for a period of several years, ending in August 2006 at the Lenfilm studios in Saint Petersburg, Russia. During the lengthy editing and post-production stage,[3] German passed away before the film could be completed. Production was concluded by members of his family.[4] The film was premiered at the 2013 Rome Film Festival (out of competition).
The film was reported to have been renamed to The History of the Arkanar Massacre (Russian: История арканарской резни).[5] The press has also mentioned the alternative title The Carnage in Arkanare,[6] and a film script published under the title "What said the tobacconist from Tobacco Street".
Later, the title was reverted to Hard to Be a God.[7]
Reception
Critical response
Reception in the Russian media was mixed.[8] While some critics praised German's vision, others, especially in sci-fi themed media, were critical of his handling of source material.
However, Hard to Be a God received acclaim from English-language critics. Review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes reports that 95% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 42 reviews with an average rating of 9/10. The site's consensus reads: "A sci-fi epic with palpable connections to the present, Hard to Be a God caps director Aleksei German's brilliant filmography with a final masterpiece".[9]Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, reports the film has a score of 93 based on 13 reviews.[10]
Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian newspaper gave it five out of five, calling it: "awe-inspiring in its own monumentally mad way" and "beautiful, brilliant and bizarre".[11]Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club likened it to Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, naming German as "probably the most important Russian filmmaker to remain more or less completely unknown in the United States." He praised the "grotesque and deranged" medieval sci-fi film as "first and foremost a vision of human misery, brutality, and ignorance."[12]
The location manager and sometimes film blogger Shane Scott-Travis included the film in his list "25 most beautiful films of the 21st century" (ranking it the 17th) in the website of film bloggers Taste of Cinema.[13]
Best lists
Hard to Be a God was listed by numerous critics' and publications' as one of the top films of 2015.
German, Aleksei; Svetlana Karmalita (2006). "Что сказал табачник с Табачной улицы" и другие киносценарии (in Russian). St. Peterburg: Amfora; Seans. p. 720. ISBN5-367-00232-3.
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