The Adventures of Elektronik

Infobox Film
name = The Adventures of Elektronik


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director = Konstantin Bromberg
producer =
writer =
narrator =
starring =
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Gosteleradio
released = 1980
runtime = 215 min
country = flagicon|USSR USSR
language = Russian
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
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website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0078673

The Adventures of Elektronik ( _ru. Приключения Электроника, translit. "Priklyucheniya Elektronika") is a 1980 Soviet adventure TV miniseries directed by Konstantin Bromberg.

Novel and screenplay by Yevgeni Veltistov. His fiction novels "Elektronik - the boy from the suitcase" (1964) and "Ressi - an elusive friend" (1971) were adapted into three film series by Bromberg. The TV premiere was on May of 1980. The film achieved a cult status among the Soviet kids.

Plot summary

A robot named Elektronik escapes from Professor Gromov's laboratory. The robot looks exactly like Sergey (Serezha) Syroezhkin, the boy from the magazine cover, which was chosen by Gromov as a model to construct Elektronik.

By coincidence, the double meets its prototype. 6-grader Serezha cunningly suggests that Elektronik should impersonate him - go to school instead of him and even live in his home. His plan works, as no one can tell the difference between them. Serezha's teachers delight in a very gifted pupil, who suddenly shows unbelievable talents in math, gymnastics, drawing and even singing. Sergey parents do not suspect his trick and are glad of their pseudo-son's progress.

However, eventually the boy realizes that as the robot takes over "his" life, he may be out of business...

At the same time, "somewhere abroad", a gang of criminals operates. It is headed by a criminal authority known as Stump. He tells Urrie, who is the best in their gang, to find and kidnap Elektronik. They want to organize a "crime of the century" with the use of his extraordinary abilities.

Cast

* Yuri Torsuyev as "Syroyezhkin"
* Vladimir Torsuyev as "Elektronik"
* Vasili Skromny as "Gusev"
* Oksana Fandera as "Maika"
* Maksim Kalinin as "Korol'kov"
* Dmitri Maksimov as "Smirnov"
* Yevgeni Livshits as "Ryzhikov/Chizhikov"
* Valeriya Soluyan as "Kukushkina"
* Vladimir Basov as "Stump"
* Nikolai Karachentsov as "Urrie"
* Nikolai Grinko as "Professor Gromov"
* Yelizaveta Nikishchikhina as "Masha", Gromov's assistant
* Yevgeni Vesnik as "Tarator"', the math teacher
* Maya Bulgakova as "School's headmistress"
* Nikolai Boyarsky as "Rostik", the gymnastics teacher
* Roza Makakagonova, the singing lessons teacher
* Nataliya Vasazhenko, Syroyezhkin's mother
* Yuri Chernov, Syroyezhkin's father
* Lev Perfilov as "Lyug", Stump's gangster
* Gennadi Yalovich as "Bree", Stump's gangster

Trivia

* Originally, it was planned that both Syroyezhkin and Elektronik roles would be played by just one boy. But the director of the film decided to simplify the filming process by using twins. His assistants screened a hundred twins throughout most of the Soviet Union. One of the casting days took place in the winter, when the temperature was below zero, nobody came except for the Torsuyev brothers. It was they who were cast in leading roles.
* In test filmings, Yuri played the role of Elektronik and Vladimir of Syroyezhkin, but something was very odd and the film director changed the roles. Now the filming went more smoothly.
* The hair of the twins was dyed light reddish-brown. They even went to school with this makeup during the whole filming period. The first time their hair was dyed, the boys begged for a bald haircut instead, but later grew accustomed to it.
* During the filming period the kids grew up too fast, and it was necessary to make new costumes from time to time. The girl in one scene smiles with the full mouth of teeth and in the next scene she has lost her front teeth.
* Stump used a 1973 Buick Electra car
* For the filming process Vladimir Basov (Stump) got a costume three sizes too large. He become a little angry and commanded the frightened costume designer to take off her trousers. He barely pulled on her white jeans, found a black sweater in the make-up room and was finally satisfied with his clothes.
* In the episode where the weight athletics bar(in fact, its low-weight imitation) falls over Urrie's head, the actor (Nikolai Karachentsov) fell to the ground and cut himself with a bough. He didn't say anything to the director and went to the hospital only after the filming day was over.
* Lyrics for the film were written by Evgeni Krylatov. Bromberg forced him to change them several times. One of their discussions led to Krylatov's long walk up to Belarus Terminus of Moscow alongside Bromberg; Krylatov was wearing slippers on his bare feet and it was late autumn. His lyrics was perform in the film by Elena Kamburova and the chorus; no one from actors, except Karachentsov and Basov, were afforded an opportunity to sing.(Krylatov wrote the music - the lyrics were written by Entin)

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078673/ Priklyucheniya Elektronika] at IMDB