Parade of the Planets

A strangely dreamlike tale, perhaps symbolic. The narrative is straightforward enough: a group of Red Guard veterans are unexpectedly 'killed' during a weekend of manoeuvres, and finding themselves with ample free time, set off on an odyssey into an increasingly disturbing landscape: a town populated only by women, deserted lakeland forests, a sinister old people's home. Some of it is almost embarrassingly reminiscent of Hollywood's hippy '60s allegories (notably the skinny-dipping to the strains of Beethoven); other moments have an elusive poetry. It's supposedly about the ghosts that haunt the contemporary Russian psyche: quite what they are isn't exactly clear.