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What if the world forgets you every time a door closes in front... or behind you? The unreality factor and its ramifications are made clear to you early on in this film. Marius, the instructor, has of course no problem with the new reality, because he is there to teach the participant of his seminar a point of view. How to be fully present in every moment of your life, without your baggage of the past. And even though the reality we live in is less extreme, I feel this point of view comes across well. But the participant, Jörg Karsunke, is not the same kind of character as his instructor. The baggage of life, we carry, are not only the regrettable consequences of our actions, but also the good things we've accomplished, and we can't simply dismiss the part of our life we were satisfied with. Jörg's attitude is generally one of loyalty and responsibility. This film shows the selfish, arrogant intellect versus the considerate, faithful ignorance. Our own intellectual pride is the most difficult to overcome. And indeed, maybe we all can learn from each other. The end of the film is more logical than predictable, because as things are going along, there seem to be no way of telling what will happen next right up until the story suddenly is told, and the film ends. I immensely enjoyed watching it.

Dr Evans, his wife and a few other passengers are saved by alien visitors after a plane crash. One of the humanoid aliens develop a special relationship with Dr Evans, whose scientific work aspire to prolong the human life span. As a first encounter both sides experience somewhat of a disappointment about the other, albeit the aliens had less to correct. The emphasis is on the dialog. This is a film with limited action and special effects. The display of a well known scotch whisky, and brand of cigarettes intend to give the viewer the impression the events in this film take place somewhere in western Europe. Being the year 1973, it works for me, though we did have slightly more intense traffic. The performances are classic Russian drama acting, which works just fine in surreal situations such as alien encounters. The star Sergey Bondarchuk does a solid interpretation of his role. Does his name seem familiar? Well, yes, his daughter made a memorable and lasting impression as Hari in Tarkovsky's Solaris the year before this film. This is not a great movie, but it is neither a complete waste of time to watch it.