22nd Calgary Underground Film Festival

April 17-27, 2025

13th CUFF.Docs Documentary Film Festival

November 19-23, 2025

Hard To Be A God

Russia, 2013: 170 Minutes: Alberta Premiere
Archives 2015
HardToBeAGodStill_LR
Globe Cinema
Sun, Apr 19 3:30 PM Buy

description

The final project of Russian filmmaker Aleksei Yuryevich German, HARD TO BE A GOD is a philosophical science-fiction epic inspired by the 1964 cult novel written by brothers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. Set on a planet stuck in the Dark Ages, HARD TO BE A GOD depicts a black and white world filled with violence, filth and crudeness, standing in as a metaphor for our own times.

Nearly finished at the time of his death in 2013, the Russian director's magnum opus was completed with the assistance of his son and wife. At its premiere at the Rome Film Festival HARD TO BE A GOD screened alongside the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to Aleksei Yuryevich German, the first time in the history of European festivals that a Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred posthumously.

OFFICIAL SELECTION:
Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2014
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2014

DIRECTOR BIO:

Aleksei Yuryevich German was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker.
 

press for Hard To Be A God

"Boisterous, overstuffed, richly designed and utterly incomprehensible."
- Variety
"Some 15 years in production, the film has taken on almost mythic status for cinephiles salivating at the prospect of its completion."
- Little White Lies

details

Drama / Narrative

18+
Russian with English Subtitles
170 Minutes

credits

Director:
Aleksei German

Producer:
Viktor Izvekov, Leonid Yarmolnik

Screenplay:
Aleksei German, Svetlana Karmalita

Cinematographer:
Vladimir Ilin, Yuriy Klimenko

Cast:
Leonid Yarmolnik, Dmitriy Vladimirov, Laura Lauri

Writer:
Arkadiy Strugatskiy, Boris Strugatskiy

Website:
www.kinolorber.com/film.php?id=1918

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