Attraction (film)

Attraction
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Fyodor Bondarchuk
Produced by	Fyodor Bondarchuk Dmitriy Rudovskiy Mikhail Vrubel Gabriel Klement Aleksandr Andryushchenko Anton Zlatopolskiy
Screenplay by	Andrey Zolotaryov Oleg Malovichko
Starring	Irina Starshenbaum Alexander Petrov Rinal Mukhametov Oleg Menshikov Nikita Kukushkin Evgeniy Sangadzhiev Aleksey Maslodudov
Music by	Ivan Burlyaev
Cinematography	Mikhail Khasaya
Production company	Art Pictures Studio Vodorod 2011
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	26 January 2017 (2017-01-26) (Russia)
Running time	132 minutes
Country	Russia
Language	Russian
Budget	$6.3 million
Box office	$18.4 million

Attraction (Russian: Притяжение, Prityazhenie) is a 2017 Russian science-fiction drama film directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk. The plot tells about an alien spaceship that crash-lands in Moscow district Chertanovo. The Russian government immediately introduced martial law, as the locals grow increasingly angry at the unwelcome guest. The film stars Irina Starshenbaum, Alexander Petrov, Rinal Mukhametov and Oleg Menshikov.

According to Bondarchuk, the movie is a social allegory. The script writers stated that it was inspired by the 2013 Biryulyovo riots.

The project became the fourth Russian film transferred to the IMAX 3D format. The premiere of the film in Russia was on 26 January 2017.^[1] Attraction became a box office hit, grossing more than 1 billion rubles and becoming the highest-grossing Russian sci-fi movie. It was also a moderate critical success with the Russian media.

Plot

The storyline revolves around colonel Valentin Lebedev, who is in charge of the military operation, his daughter Yulia, who develops a romantic relationship with the alien Hekon, and her former boyfriend Artyom who is the main antagonist.

Hekon is a representative of a technologically-advanced humanoid race who arrives to Earth incognito for research purposes. His spaceship is damaged by a meteor shower. The Russian Air Force mistakes his spaceship for a NATO spy satellite/spacecraft and damages it by firing missiles into it, causing it to crash into several buildings in Moscow and kill hundreds of people. It is on that same day when Yulia and Artyom have finished attending a meteor-watching event, that Yulia's friend Svetlana is killed while watching some meteors.

The Russian government decides not to enter into a contact with the ship and let it fix itself on its own. The landing area is evacuated, fenced, and guarded, and Moscow is placed under a curfew. Meanwhile, Yulia, Artyom, and his friends Khariton, Ruslan, and Piton sneak into the crash site to investigate the alien: after they beat him up and cause him to crash down a building, they retrieve his armor before an army patrol may find them. On another day, Yulia sneaks again to retrieve the alien, placing him to a nerdy classmate known as "Google" to help the alien recover. While examining his body, she notices a wristband forming on her right wrist, which manipulates water.

The alien, who introduces himself as "Hekon", was initially unsure about Earth and its people, but tells them that he is looking for a device known as "Shilk", that allows him to travel through space without destroying his body. Shilk, like the spaceship, appears to be attracting water. As he goes out to the streets to look for the device, the police mistake him for a drug addict and send him off to a police station to be interrogated.

Meanwhile, Artyom and his friends drive in their car to inform Colonel Lebedev about the alien's armor that they had hidden in their garage. They stumble upon a crowd who is angry over rationed water, as the spaceship appears to absorb water in order to repair itself. Ruslan decides to provoke the crowd into becoming a disorderly riot. Artyom is hit by a policeman's baton as he tries to convince people to stop rioting, and is taken to the police station but he forgets to tell Colonel Lebedev about his discovery.

In order to get Shilk, Yulia goes to see her father, who interrupts his meeting with his officers when she informed him that she is pregnant with Hekon's child. She actually says this to distract him, so Hekon can disguise himself as a scientist and take Shilk from its container, and also because she was upset that he did not spend much time with her after her mother passed away.

Yulia confesses her true feelings for Hekon in a phone call to Artyom, while Artyom arrives with his friends to beat up the alien. Hekon fights back, and when one of Artyom's friends tries to shoot Hekon, Ruslan is shot by accident instead. Artyom and one of his friends flee before the police would arrest them. He reports this incident to gather many supporters and form a group to attack Hekon's spaceship, and avenge Ruslan's death, whom he blames the alien for causing it. In spite of his initial support, Piton sometimes expresses doubt on Artyom's goals.

Artyom's group breaks through a police barricade, triggering several other robotic suits to come out and fight against the mob. Yulia and Hekon drive through the police barricade and the mob using a military car to return him and Shilk back to their ship, while fending off against Artyom, who angrily rampages using Hekon's suit. Hekon defeats Artyom, but Artyom shoots him and Yulia with a dropped military rifle. Saddened by this, Colonel Lebedev follows several walking suits as they carry Yulia and Hekon to the spaceship, where its machinery uses water to nurse Yulia's injuries. The spaceship's computer also responds to Lebedev's questions about Hekon's mission to observe the Earth, as its warlike civilizations and history had made it very unsafe for interstellar contact. However, Yulia's love for Hekon, and her willingness to protect him, have caused the computer's authorities to rewrite the results of their study on Earth.

Yulia, her father, and everyone else return to their daily lives, as the spaceship departs and releases excess water. Meanwhile, Artyom is arrested and presumably sent to a prison camp.

The fabula of the movie is vocalized by Yulia at the end: The truth is that one alien from far away trusted us more than we trust ourselves.

Cast

Filming

Principal photography began in November 2015.^[2]

Reception

Attraction received mixed to positive reviews in Russian media, including «Afisha»,^[3] «Kommersant»,^[4] «Mir Fantastiki»,^[5] «KG-portal»,^[6] The Hollywood Reporter^[7] among others. According to review aggregator Kritikanstvo.ru, out of 58 reviews, only 10 were negative (among them, a very harsh review from the popular video blogger BadComedian), and the average rating of the movie was 6.4 out of 10.^[8] Attraction was praised for its social commentary, visuals and acting (Oleg Menshikov's performance in particular), but some reviews criticized the movie's negative portrayal of Russian youth and certain inconsistencies in characterization.

References

External links

• Attraction on IMDb
• Official website at the Art Pictures Studio (in English)