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"...The terribly real sense of our existence not in the world, but somewhere between worlds, is not in the bounded reality, but in the shifting and forming, is not in the homely settling, but in the senseless pilgrimage... It was only possible to reverse the veil of Maya and observe everything from the opposite side, not from the side that lulls you and gives you a sense of calm, but from the side of Nothing, revealing our vital presence as an advancement of Nothing"
It's enough to quote not only this, but also almost any other passage to describe The Ugly Swans as a film that's dense, very dense, visionary, and incredibly meditative. It's no coincidence that the subject is provided by the same authors of Roadside Picnic, which served as the basis for Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, a film and director with which Lopushansky's work shares quite a few analogies. Instead of action, gore, and twists, the film prefers atmosphere, suggestion, visionariness, and an intense examination of the concepts of nothingness and absurdity in the vein of the best works of existentialist philosophy.
A semi-ghost city in Asian Russia is at the center of a mysterious climatic anomaly, incessant rain that has flooded streets and buildings. The population consists of members of the International Commission established by the UN to deal with the city, young students of a school for super-geniuses, and the hydrophiles. It's unknown who the hydrophiles are; they're a mysterious genetic mutation surrounded by various theories, it's unclear if they're still human, they evoke fear. It's them who gathered these highly gifted children in the city; they represent a sample of a new humanity, those who are to be the bearers of a radical intellectual and spiritual change. The children themselves say it: humanity is at a crossroads, on one hand, ultimate degradation, self-destruction, annihilation of every value and self-awareness, on the other, an intellectual and spiritual revolution so radical that what emerges will no longer even be definable as human.
However, the existence of this city is coming to an end; a sort of war has erupted between two worlds separated by an impassable barrier, and the authorities are preparing a chemical attack that will turn the area into a toxic desert. The fear of the hydrophiles has led to this decision, as it's said multiple times by various characters: it's either them or us. Humans believe the hydrophiles have declared war on humanity, that they intend to supplant the dominant species on the planet, turning children cold and calculating; they must be annihilated. The hydrophiles seem to be impassive in the face of their fate.
An apocalyptic situation is witnessed through the eyes of a famous writer, Russian but residing in the USA, who returned to his homeland to take his daughter away from what is about to become hell.
Victor Banev is the only representative of the old humanity considered by these children who could be seen as neo-nihilists, appearing to be the future architects of the transvaluation of all values hoped for by Nietzsche. The writer is almost like a modern Socrates, for whom an intelligent man is someone who knows his own limits, who identifies his essence in his own imperfection, and whose highest aspiration is to transform the disgusting into admirable and not to disintegrate and replace it. Victor Banev is in the middle; his character demonstrates that both old and new humanity are guilty of arrogance. It's not clarified, however, whether a syncretism of the old and the future is possible, whether humanity will have to rewrite itself to save itself from self-destruction, or whether something is salvageable.
Old and new humanity, innovative drive, and fear of the different; the contrast between the worlds is also offered by the visual department. The magnificent cinematography seamlessly transitions from explosions of warm colors (the first shot of the film is a Polish forest on fire seen from a train window) to cold tones. The open environments are permeated by reddish glimmers contrasting with the extreme humidity brought by the perpetual rain, while the interiors are illuminated by a chilling blue scale.
The Ugly Swans is pure poetics of the end. A symphony of socio-cultural death and rebirth. A cinematic Samsara.
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