In the Shadow of Plasticine Ancestors Belarusian writer Olga Ipatova is well known at home, but rarely published: perhaps it is the fault of inconvenient questions that she asks President Lukashenko at state literary events. Most of Ipatova’s work is devoted to historical themes (the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) and orphanages: her own experience of staying in a boarding school formed the basis of the story “Svyatogor’s Knot”, which in 1988 was filmed on “Belarusfilm” by director Alexander Karpov Jr.
From a technical point of view, Homunculus is an ordinary perestroika movie: it was shot on Shostkin film in classic murky green tones, has a small budget and almost amateur acting. The theme of orphanages for films of the late eighties is one of the most popular; there is hardly an environment where it is easier and cheaper to show the atmosphere of trouble, combined with the shaky hope for a bright future. By a surprising oversight – despite the efforts of the director, rather than thanks to them – the film went far beyond the limits set by the state order. Children recruited in Minsk schools play better than professional actors. Shooting in the first person endows the film with surreal motifs that rather not reinforce the shaky undertones of moralization, but contradict it.
A high school student named Venya Ryzhik lives in a boarding school, violates the rules of socialist dormitory with her friends and arranges a whole underground among teenagers. “Join the League of Kolba Children!” reads Veny’s manifestos, and joining the League is accompanied by a complex initiation procedure. In the lobby of the school next to the portrait of Lenin, the slogan “Down with parents” appears. Orthodox educators are offended, but the liberal director defends Venya and tries to help her. Meanwhile, a child’s corpse is found in a roadside ditch, a red banner parade marches through the streets of a small Belarusian city, and busts of Khrushchev and Stalin are dusting in the art workshop where the good director brings Venya’s works.
The social plot of Homunculus does not cause much interest. After an inactive and frivolous life, the heroine finds her calling. And after organizing a club on denial of parents, turns to the fictional mother for salvation. But behind an insignificant shell hides mystical details that are remembered much better than prosaic socialist realism. On the tape, where the boarding school game is recorded, there is a recording of the album Zoolook by Jean-Michel Jarre. From the eyes of the heroine we see nightmares and incredible dreams. Under the music of Jarre (who decided not to indicate in the credits, apparently, so as not to attract the attention of copyright specialists) and under the creaking swing, the heroine literally goes crazy. Plastic figurine of a person from a broken flask with the help of sophisticated animation turns into frightening figures resembling a baby, a decaying corpse, a monstrous alien fruit. In visions, the heroine is pursued by hordes of rabbits, and the scene in the museum is worthy of a horror film. By the standards of a modern spectator, there are many horrors here: in the final we see how Venya, wearing terrible Soviet lipstick and wearing creepy Soviet earrings, swings on a rocking chair in a cozy living room, which turns out to be an exhibition headset of a Minsk department store.
The performer of the main role Olesya Yanushkevich was found in an ordinary Belarusian school: she did not cope with the demonstration of hysteria in the best way, but she was invited to the role. A rare case when during the film you can observe the professional growth of the actress - from clumsy reading lines at the beginning to charming, and sometimes even seductive, games in the final. After graduating from school in 1990, Olesya tried to enter the theater, but failed the first exam. A year later, she made another attempt. She dreamed of becoming a director and dreamed of making historical films.
“Homunculus” ends with the awakening of the heroine at the bus station to the false sounds of anthem from speakers. Judging by the light effects, it may be New Year’s Eve, but instead of the atmosphere of the holiday, there is lonely fatigue and indifference. We don't know if Venya will return to the orphanage, whether he will go to art school, and what does it matter? The illusory world, where the heroine falls in her dreams, looks much more attractive and interesting than the faded reality. Almost thirty years later, one can only wonder how a little-known perestroika film allegorically reflected the past and future of the Soviet Union. The best ideas remained in dreams - and these dreams remained relevant, in contrast to the everyday life of millions of Soviet people smeared on Shostkin film. Ironically, we don’t know what happened to most of the Homunculus crew after the perestroika. The director, the cameraman and the main actors (with the exception of Leonid Kulagin, who still continues a successful television career in Russia) simply disappeared into oblivion. Olesya Yanushkevich died in 1991. She was 18 or 19 years old. She never had time to enter the theater.
