The Adventures of Elektronik is a 1980 Soviet adventure

Adventure film

Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....

 TV miniseries directed by Konstantin Bromberg.

Novel and screenplay by Yevgeni Veltistov. His fiction novels "Elektronic - 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 2 May 1980. The film achieved a cult status among the Soviet kids.

Plot summary

A robot

Robot

A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

 named Elektronic 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 Elektronic.

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's 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 Elektronic. They want to organize a "crime of the century" with the use of his extraordinary abilities.

Cast

• Yuri Torsuyev as Syroyezhkin
• Vladimir Torsuyev as Elektronic
• Vasili Skromny as Gusev
• Oksana Alekseyeva as Maika
• Maksim Kalinin as Korol'kov
• Dmitri Maksimov as Smirnov
• Yevgeni Livshits as Ryzhikov/Chizhikov
• Valeriya Soluyan as Kukushkina
• Vladimir Basov
  Vladimir Basov
  Vladimir Pavlovich Basov was a Soviet actor, film director, and screenwriter. Vladimir Basov was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1983.-Biography:...
  
   as Stump
• Nikolai Karachentsov
  Nikolai Karachentsov
  Nikolai Petrovich Karachentsov is a Soviet/Russian actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR .- Films :* The Witches Cave as Jean, the cosmolinguist* The Adventures of the Electronic as Urrie* The Cat Who Walked by Herself...
  
   as Urrie
• Nikolai Grinko
  Nikolai Grinko
  Nikolai Grigoryevich Grinko or Mykola Hryhorovych Hrynko , was a Soviet/Ukrainian actor.He is well known for his roles in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, including: Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rubliov, Solaris, Mirror, and Stalker. He starred in the 1981 film Teheran 43.-External links:...
  
   as Professor Gromov
• Yelizaveta Nikishchikhina as Masha, Gromov's assistant
• Yevgeny Vesnik
  Yevgeny Vesnik
  Yevgeny Yakovlevich Vesnik was a Russian and Soviet stage and a film actor. The son of Yakov Vesnik, the first director of the Kryvorizhstal plant, he fought the Germans in the Second World War...
  
   as Tarator, the math teacher
• Maya Bulgakova as School's headmistress
• Nikolai Boyarsky as Rostik, the gymnastics teacher
• Roza Makagonova
  Roza Makagonova
  Roza Ivanovna Makagonova was a Soviet actress. Makagonova was awarded as a Meritorious Artist in 1976.- Biography :Makagonova was born on October 28, 1927 in Samara. In 1951, she finished the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography and until 1990, she worked in the governmental theater of actors in...
  
  , 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

Production

Originally, it was planned that both Syroyezhkin and Elektronic 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 Elektronic and Vladimir of Syroyezhkin, but the roles were later changed by the director. During the filming period the kids grew up too fast, and it was necessary to make new costumes from time to time.

Music

Music for the film were written by Evgeni Krylatov. His lyrics was perform in the film by Elena Kamburova, Elena Shuenkova  and the chorus; no actors, except for Karachentsov and Basov, were afforded an opportunity to sing. (The lyrics were written by Jury Entin)

External links