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My dear boy.

Just imagine, I am working.

And what's strangest,

it's of some use to society.

I measured the new day cycle:

7200 minutes by the old standard.

It's not senseless, as it first seems.

Because the twilight is uniform.

Even the Lord, when creating this world,

had to orient himself in time.

He invented the day cycle,

because it encompasses variety within itself.

I suggested a new measure of time: "one crepuscule,"

because variety no longer exists in this world.

Your mother and I stayed in the shelter beneath the museum,

with her colleagues.

Here we'll wait for you.

And we'll only go to the central bunker together.

The entrance from the street is open,

but you have to go up the wall.

Good morning.

- What time is it then, may I ask? - I don't know.

Then what are you ringing it for?

I feel that it's morning.

Did you turn on the ventilation?

It's stuttering.

- Then put on the mask. - Yes.

Thank you.

I'll go turn it off.

Dear Erick.

Before all of us: your mother, and I, and even you

turn into cosmic dust, as we are all mortal,

we'll live many more happy hours and days!

Even by my measurements.

Your mother's feeling much better today.

We haven't had such a nice talk

in a long time, as we did just now.

LETTERS FROM A DEAD MAN

Screenplay: Konstantin Lopushanskii Vyacheskav Rybakov with Boris Strugatskii

Directed by: Konstantin Lopushanskii

Cinematography: Nikolai Pokoptsev

Art Direction: Elena Amshinskaya Viktor Ivanov

Music: Aleksandr Zhurbin

Sound: Leonid Gavrichenko

Editing: Tatiana Smorodinskaya Yurii Pavlov

Cast:

Rolan Bykov

Iosif Ryklin Viktor Mikhailov Alexandr Sabinin

Nora Gryakalova Vera Mayorova Vatslav Dvorzhetsky

Vadim Lobanov Svetlana Smirnova Nikolai Alkanov

Has the commission been here?

They're here now. I'm very worried.

Lord, please save and protect us.

Please take everything off and come in. I have to go.

- Who's in charge here? - I am.

Come over here.

- How many people live in this place? - Twelve.

And everyone's here?

Yes. Yes, everyone's here. And this is our guest.

No, no, I'm not here for the inspection. I already have a pass.

Where are their parents?

This is all that's left of the orphanage.

I had a shelter for 40 children. Almost all of them died.

- So their parents are dead? - Yes.

They never say a word.

I think they're in still in a state of shock.

I see. They're in a stuporous state.

They can understand almost everything. They just can't talk.

You. Yes, you. Get behind the screen.

- Maybe we should start with the children? - No.

- It's time for bed already... Why? - Don't ask questions.

What's your name? Look at me.

Can you hear me?

Yes, it's clear.

Don't include the children.

Turn your back to me.

Lift your arms.

Put them down. Turn around.

Get dressed.

- Should I call the old man? - No.

- Listen, doctor. The children... - Get out of my way!

Are you saying that you want to leave the children here?

I don't want to do anything, I'm following instructions!

Only children with their parents, and only those who are healthy.

That's impossible.

You must understand what will happen to them if...

you leave them here alone.

That's not my responsibility. Everyone should do what's

required of them, and leave others to do the same!

You're a doctor. You're supposed to save lives.

They're going to die anyway. They're ill.

We can't take care of the healthy, and you want to save the sick!

Please understand, even if I give them a pass,

they will be stopped at the control.

Children without their parents, and in a catatonic state!

I could be shot for giving out false passes.

You're forgetting that we're in a military state.

Enough! The special services will take care of them.

And you? Who will take care of you?

What are you talking about?

You'll leave them here, and then go hide in your bunker?

But the dead will come for you, sooner or later. They'll sit there,

right in front of you. How will you then look into their dead eyes?

How would you live with yourself?

And what service is going to help you then?

- How old are you? - What difference does it make?

For you, quite a bit.

Because we don't need the decrepit, either.

So please find your birth certificate if you want to get a pass,

and shut up. You're interfering with my work!

Everything you have said, or were about to say, I've heard already.

Ten times, twenty times, a hundred times!

Come over here!

You report the day after tomorrow. Bring nothing extra.

A change of clothes, blankets, food, if you have any, nothing else!

I'm not leaving without the children! You have no right to do this!

Then don't go. Nobody's forcing you.

It's your choice to make.

By the time of the catastrophe, there was not a single domain

of human activity left that was not in a state of profound crisis.

Science had focused itself upon the creation of means of mass

destruction, each of which, by itself, was already capable of eliminating

all life on the planet. Technology was systematically destroying

the environment. Political relations had acquired an ambitiously

paranoid character. The arts had become thoroughly

antihumanistic, and instead of guidance, had become a tool of

stupefaction, indulging the most base instincts of mankind.

- Good morning. - Good morning.

I feel like a completely new person.

It's simply incredible.

I'm adapting so well! I only need to get used to the cold.

I forgot to ask you, how's your wife feeling lately?

Bad.

Stand still.

The commission doctor was talking about some kind of list

in the central bunker.

I came over, and they got quiet. Go. They didn't want me to hear.

I'm very worried. We have children, after all!

We're leaving today.

What about you?

I don't know.

I haven't decided yet. Yes.

Here are some pills for her headaches.

You'll need to dissolve them in a little water.

Thank you.

It's not good to laugh at the insane.

He's no more insane than the rest of us.

What is this mess?

I asked you a question.

I was trying to make sense of the seismic data.

If war is everywhere,

Then the explosions must have been recorded.

And if not...

Then what?

Then it's proof.

Proof?

Do you think that if you find some proof,

you can save the world?

Don't you see

what's happening around you?

And what's happening to me - you don't notice that, either?

You know when you lost your mind?

When?

Even before all of this.

After your findings.

After the Nobel Prize.

It's possible.

Drink the medicine.

My son thinks that we should go to the central bunker tomorrow.

After lunch.

There may be confusion at the control.

What do you think?

It's possible.

To be honest, none of this has penetrated the psyche yet.

There was a book. "The Mole-Man."

Has anyone read it?

It's interesting. How would you imagine

an underground civilization, I'd like to know?

It's true. It's a serious moral dilemma.

But what can one do?

This is our only chance. There's nothing left.

I disagree...

I don't believe that the world is finished. Yes.

Are you quite serious?

Yes, quite.

I have made this into a logical problem.

So far I only have 25 hypotheses.

But each one can be tested.

It will take time, of course. Yes.

I read a scientific book.

It said that a human being evolves very quickly.

He can adapt to anything. Yes, absolutely anything.

It's only necessary that the body can breathe.

The skin has to be uncovered. Do you understand?

Well, I decided to try it.

I'm already doing breathing exercises.

- What, am I saying something stupid? - Yes.

Drink this, you'll feel better. It's an analgesic.

Yes, yes, just like that. Wait, wait. Just a little more.

Do you have a photograph of Eriсk?

No, of course not.

He died on the streets.

- Burned to death. - How could you know that?

I saw it in a dream.

Try to sleep anyway.

Go... Don't wait for me...

Attention! Any exit to the surface during curfew hours is forbidden.

Those who possess a permit must carry it on their person at all times.

Attention! Movement through the tunnels of internal services

during curfew hours is strictly forbidden. I repeat...

A week ago, you could get painkillers on the black market.

One can will get you an ampule.

Try going there. Just be very careful.

During the curfew, they shoot without warning.

That's all we can do for Anna.

And the Eskatamon?

What about it? It's not medicine, it's only a stimulant.

Have you found anything out?

We've received orders to evacuate to the central bunker.

- We're leaving today. - And the military?

What about them?

Is it really possible that they still don't know anything?

Nothing at all. They have their instructions.

- And what do those say? - All the same things.

Evacuation to the central bunker, deep conservation. And so forth.

And what does that mean?

30 years under the surface, maybe 50.

And maybe eternity.

Everything's finished.

Our planet is uninhabitable.

That's not possible. Call it what you want - sense, intuition. I don't have

a positive hypothesis yet, but I just feel it, do you understand?

It's simply not possible.

It's impossible to believe it.

My entire family burned to death. Is that possible?

I don't know. There's something wrong with my head.

Maybe even amnesia. I... Need...

To concentrate on a problem, I need to find a hypothesis.

I don't know what... I need.

Fresh mountain air and total rest.

I need medicine. Some kind of analgesic.

- What do you have there? - Canned goods.

- Meat? - Yes, from the army supplies. They were kept in the cellar.

- Come with me, but don't try anything. - Yes, I understand.

A raid!

I repeat: if you show any resistance, we will open fire.

Please allow me...

Please allow me to express...

On behalf of the remaining museum staff,

our deepest, most heartfelt condolences

concerning the untimely death of your wife.

Dear Eriсk.

Dear Eriсk...

Some claim, that children live

with the joy of discovery and wonder.

I on the other hand am convinced, that in the best of times

a child lives with fear.

In my childhood, this fear was of steam engines.

They said, that as a small child, I saw

how a steam engine ran into a cow.

I don't remember this, but in my worst nightmares,

a giant black steam engine would pursue me.

My feet were glued to the ground, and I'd wake up screaming.

Now I'm having this dream again.

I'm standing on the tracks in front of it.

And I'm the one behind the controls.

I'm racing towards myself, and can't do anything.

My life, and my science became

this black, merciless engine,

which we ran into humanity.

How many people have I imagined

behind its controls!

From the great Bohr, to our own president.

But the worst dream, Erick,

is when you're the one standing on the tracks...

My dear boy!

If something happens to me or your mother,

although it's quite unlikely,

I've asked that we be buried

by the red cabinet with the Egyptian urns,

to the left of the entrance to the repository.

Yesterday, after our memorable debate,

I took it upon myself to draft up

a message of sorts, to a future civilization

which will someday, I dare to hope,

rise up from what remains of this bed of ashes.

Excuse me, colleague, but I do not quite understand.

To whom is this addressed?

I don't know. It doesn't matter.

To anyone... To whoever takes our place.

Extraterrestrials. Mutants.

Mutants?

Please excuse me, I really must go. Lots of work to do.

Excuse me.

I suppose, father, that we should

postpone the discussion of the text until tomorrow.

Yes. It's not fit to do it now.

On such a grim day.

It's time to finally admit

that the entire history of mankind

is a history of the prolonged suicide of a living matter, which

a cosmic coincidence had endowed with the capacity to reason,

and which did not know what to do with this accidental, fatal capacity.

Period.

And did not find a better use for it, than the creation

of ever more effective means of committing total suicide. Period.

From the memorable rope of Judas...

I can't stand this anymore!

...to the appearance of the neutron bomb, genetic, biological,

and the devil only knows what other types of weapons.

What wonderful progress! The flowering of reason! Period.

Robbery! That is the essence of science.

But after all, there's some truth in what he's saying.

What do you mean?

If our values have been destroyed,

it's because they were baseless.

Under the surface, we'll create a new humanity.

We'll give it new values, and new commandments.

Hate those close to you.

Hate those far from you.

Hate yourself.

I can imagine what you'll create.

I understand you.

This is foreign to you.

You remind me very much of my father.

Please excuse my frankness, but you are the last humanists.

How would you call it. A dying species of mammoths.

It's time for me to go.

...a couple dozen pictures, several hundred books, and a few records.

Here are your works of art! On the other hand...

I'll come with you, father.

...mountains of corpses and rivers of blood.

What's up there is the museum! What we have here is a pitiful

forgery. It's time to finally admit, that we failed miserably.

That we disgraced ourselves, without managing to utilize

even a fraction of what was given to us by nature.

And if there is a God, he must be looking down on us with

disgust and revulsion. Nothing but arrogant presumptuous apes.

That's what we are!

Dear Erick.

I'm doing a lot of work, and am close to understanding

a quite amusing thing, which is important for all of us.

There are many unimportant things interfering with my work, like...

For example... I'm absolutely certain, that I really heard

the operator in charge of the electronic center scream:

"There's a computer error! Call off the missile launch!"

Yes, just like that: "Call off the missile launch!"

They said later that he had coffee in his mouth and had choked on it.

In any case, he was late by exactly seven seconds.

Just seven... There is something magical about this number,

it seems, even if you disregard the banalities.

I remember his face, by the way.

He walked by me in the corridor,

a big drop of sweat on his nose.

He was smiling as he walked, unbuckling his belt.

He hung himself in the bathroom.

He knew that there were exactly fourteen minutes left.

Why did this terrible wind sweep over the whole world starting

here, of all places, in our poor city?

Why, Erick?

Your son is not registered here.

Wait! Wait, there must be some mistake.

- You... Can you hear me? - Yes.

The registration isn't finished yet?

Please wait, I can't hear anything. What are you saying?

The instructions forbid any exit to the surface.

I'm begging you. The guards operate under your command.

Not any longer. There is a new procedure from this morning.

The guards no longer follow orders, only instructions.

I understand. But I have to return to the surface!

It doesn't matter how! Erick's up there! And Anna.

Until any change in directive,

only the dead can return to the surface.

Please call back.

Do you understand?

No.

We can only get you out through the tunnel

used for mortuary services.

- Will you risk it? - Of course.

Be careful at the control!

Somebody! A gas mask! Please!

Please let me into the children's ward!

- Even the nurses try to stay away from there. - But he's in there!

- Don't be insane! - I feel it - I know he's in there, and you're not letting me through!

There are no children there his age!

Please, just let me in - you can't understand, you're not a father!

So go! Just go! Let him through!

And so, judging by the course of events,

the history of mankind has come to a close.

It seems then, that it's time for us to take stock of our situation.

I believe that we should do this calmly,

without vulgar affectations.

Today I would like to speak with you

as a dead man to the dead.

In other words, candidly.

Please allow me to present to you a small defense of humankind

as a biological species.

It was a tragic species,

perhaps doomed from the beginning.

Our magnificent and fatal destiny

lay in our determination to jump ahead of ourselves.

To become better, than nature had intended for us to be.

We found it in ourselves to have compassion,

although this contradicted the laws of survival.

To experience the feeling of human dignity,

although we always trampled it beneath our feet.

Create divine works of art,

knowing full well their uselessness and fragility.

We found it in ourselves to love.

My Lord, how difficult that was!

The merciless forces of time would decay

the body, the mind, and the emotions.

But man continued to love,

and love created the arts.

The arts, which captured

our unearthly longing for an ideal,

our endless despair, and our universal scream of terror.

The scream of thinking creatures abandoned

in the cold and indifferent desert of the cosmos.

Here, behind these walls, we have uttered many words

of hatred, derision, and ridicule towards mankind.

But I will not cast a stone at it today.

No. What I would like to say is this. I loved humanity.

And I love it even more, now that it has perished,

precisely because of its tragic fate.

And my dear colleagues, I want to say to you...

I want to say to all of you, that I love you.

Everyone has their own leap of consciousness.

Perhaps this was mine. I would like you to know this.

I'm going to go back to my room now,

and that will be the end of me.

After all, we're all grown up.

And death is not so frightening, once -everything-has perished.

But wait, please... Are you really?

My son has understood me, and has forgiven me.

I hope, that you will also understand me,

and will not judge my decision.

Dear Lord, please forgive me.

Please allow me...

to express...

my most deepest, most heartfelt

condolences regarding the untimely death of your father.

I have never met a man

who devoted himself so... fully to the arts.

You have the full right to...

Everyone has gone beneath the surface. An exodus!

On the deserted earth, under a cold and empty sky.

Do you agree? No? A pity...

Haven't seen you for a long time!

I thought you were a goner, now that it's become fashionable.

But don't be offended! You have a wonderfully healthy glow about you.

I found the Greiffer reference book for you - the seventh volume,

as you'd asked.

The eighth, sadly, is gone. Thank you.

I was thinking, by the way.

While looking for proof that the world is not yet finished

is quite amusing and interesting,

it is a foolish idea and unworthy of you, professor!

What proof could there possibly be? It's quite amusing, really.

Remember, the one who came to save humanity, saying that it

had perished - and that was two thousand years ago! He came

to save those who had perished, or I think that's what he said, anyway.

Do you want me to tell you a secret? There was no war.

It happened just as it was prophesied, here.

The Apocalypse!

Everything was programmed!

From birth to death - everything was programmed, the hour

and the day! That's why astrology was always on the mark.

Everything was prophesied with absolute accuracy!

My dear Erick. Today I got up, dressed myself,

and within an hour solved the Dan Cooper equation.

Of course, this means little to you.

But my Institute wrestled with it for over thirty years.

Something's happening to the gray matter in my brain.

I only need 11 data tables.

With them, I could probably calculate the probability

of the continued survival of living matter. I could only find three.

It turns out, that the military reference manuals are now

priceless on the black market because of the thick cardboard

binding and natural paper.

In the indirect heating systems, they give off more heat.

As you can see, literature has acquired an entirely new value now.

Lately I'm having the same dream, over and over.

A bottle with soda water that I didn't finish drinking. Why?

I went to the shelter. I tried to find you.

They wouldn't take the children.

I decided to bring them here, to you.

You did the right thing. Of course.

You can't imagine, what's happening in the central bunker.

There are so many people there.

I only have a 24-hour pass.

I must come back.

I understand. And the pastor?

He's gone.

We have to leave. Get your things.

You know that I'm staying.

- Well, we're very sorry to leave you here. - Goodbye.

I'll come right back.

I'll bring some firewood.

I'm coming right back. You don't believe me?

Don't worry, I'll come back.

Let's go to sleep. It's getting late.

Dear Erick.

I've wanted to write to you for a long time about

that disgusting September night.

You walked in as your mother was yelling,

and hit me on the face.

Youth is not capable of mercy and understanding.

But you have the ability to analyze.

Maybe that will help you to understand.

I always loved and love your mother.

And your mother loved me.

Nothing else is important.

Today, by my record, is the seventh crepuscule

of the first month of snow.

That means that today is Christmas.

On this evening, and you must remember this,

people have always tried to bring joy to one another.

Give each other gifts,

treat a friend to something tasty,

or just sit in the warmth of the night.

Talk to each other.

And then, everyone would go outside,

to gaze at the first star.

And those who saw it

were happy. And all of their wishes would come true.

We'll also go out today, to meet the first star.

The snow is falling.

It always snows on this day.

Well, should we light up the tree?

Now we have a real Christmas tree.

Dear Erick.

It seems to me, that with willpower,

and the fact that I've once again found a purpose to my life,

I've regained control over my by now destroyed organism.

It's also... Very important to me...

Erick, my dear boy.

Please don't leave me alone in this world.

And it happened on the sixth day from the beginning

of the end of the world.

Theresa took them to a different place,

as the pastor had said it would happen,

and left them there.

And they were taken in by a man, who did not give them his name.

And the pastor's prophecy again came true.

And the oldest of the children wrote it down in his journal.

As had been taught by the pastor.

And wrote down everything, that happened in those days,

until the great day of the exodus.

And so it happened. On the day of the great celebration of Christmas,

he gathered everyone by the tree, and lit the candle,

and taught them. He said this:

"Remember: the world has not died." That is what he taught.

And he took them outside that evening, to look at the first star.

And said: "Look. Now we'll see the star."

But there were no stars in the sky.

Because the world had been covered with darkness.

And on that night, he lay down by the furnace,

and didn't get up again. And he said: "I'm going to die soon."

That is what he said. And then the oldest among them

came up to him and said: "May I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead," he said.

"No," said the oldest among them.

"We know that a human being tells lies his entire life,

and only before death begins to tell the truth.

We'll wait until you begin to die."

"Ask your question," he said. "It's time."

And they all came up to him, and looked him in the eyes.

And the oldest among them asked:

"Did you tell us the truth today?

Do you believe in what you told us?"

"Keep going," he said. "Keep going, as long as you have the strength.

Because as long as a human being walks on, he has hope."

"There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness,

knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death,

because we cannot forget our quarrels?

We appeal as human beings to human beings:

Remember your humanity, and forget the rest!"

B. Russell, A. Einstein, F. Joliot-Curie...

From the manifesto addressed by the prominent scientists

of the world to the governments of powerful nations. (Russell-Einstein Manifesto)

THE END

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