Under Electric Clouds

“Everything is in chaos,” fittingly notes a character in Aleksey German, Jr.’s science-fiction look at a not-so-futuristic Russia. The film is set exactly one hundred years after the Russian Revolution amid a ruined, unfinished skyscraper, where assorted souls wander in grief, anger, or merely confusion. The son of cult filmmaker Aleksey German (Khrustaliov, My Car!), German finished his late father’s final masterpiece, Hard to Be a God, while creating this epic work. Under Electric Clouds is similarly infused with German Sr.’s blend of narrative delirium, outrage at social conditions, and expansive, mind-altering cinematography, which won an award at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival.