WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.279 Dead Mountaineers Hotel. Now, I want you to be 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:05.540 honest with me. Okay. When you hear that title, 00:00:05.660 --> 00:00:08.699 where does your brain go? Because I'm willing 00:00:08.699 --> 00:00:11.880 to bet you are picturing a really cozy Snowden 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:14.419 Lodge. Oh, absolutely. Like a crackling fireplace, 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:17.620 maybe a dead body in the library, and a detective 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:20.239 with a magnificent mustache twirling a clue. 00:00:20.730 --> 00:00:23.809 It sounds like a quintessential Agatha Christie 00:00:23.809 --> 00:00:27.109 cozy mystery setup. It really does. I mean, it 00:00:27.109 --> 00:00:29.309 has all the linguistic trappings of a classic 00:00:29.309 --> 00:00:32.670 whodunit. Right. But if you went into this particular 00:00:32.670 --> 00:00:35.649 story expecting someone to gather everyone in 00:00:35.649 --> 00:00:38.909 the parlor for a tidy explanation over tea, you 00:00:38.909 --> 00:00:41.460 would be in for a very confused evening. Confused 00:00:41.460 --> 00:00:43.619 is definitely putting it lightly. Welcome to 00:00:43.619 --> 00:00:45.679 today's deep dive. I'm your host and today we 00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:48.780 are getting into the 1979 film Dead Mountaineers 00:00:48.780 --> 00:00:50.880 Hotel. Or who could have been at Alpinisti Hotel 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:53.140 if we were being precise with the original Estonian. 00:00:53.219 --> 00:00:54.899 Exactly. I'm glad you're here to help unpack 00:00:54.899 --> 00:00:57.000 this because this isn't just a mystery. It is 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:00.840 a mind -bending, genre -defying piece of Soviet 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:03.500 -era cinema. It really is. It starts out as a 00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:06.060 detective story and then takes a hard, hard left 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:08.620 turn into something else entirely. The fascinating 00:01:08.620 --> 00:01:11.840 artifact, truly. We are looking at a film directed 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:16.439 by Grigori Kromanov. But the DNA of the story, 00:01:16.519 --> 00:01:18.939 the real engine behind the weirdness here, comes 00:01:18.939 --> 00:01:21.579 from the Strogatzky brothers. Arkady and Boris. 00:01:21.819 --> 00:01:23.920 Yes. And for anyone who knows science fiction, 00:01:24.200 --> 00:01:26.719 those names are absolute royalty. Oh, without 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:28.359 a doubt. I mean, these are the guys who wrote 00:01:28.359 --> 00:01:31.280 Roadside Picnic, which famously became the film's 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:34.379 stalker. They are masters of using sci -fi to 00:01:34.379 --> 00:01:36.560 talk about literally everything except sci -fi. 00:01:36.680 --> 00:01:38.859 They use the genre as a vehicle for philosophy. 00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:41.620 And social critique, of course. Which brings 00:01:41.620 --> 00:01:44.299 us to our mission for this deep dive. We've got 00:01:44.299 --> 00:01:47.159 a comprehensive set of notes here based on a 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:49.640 deep read of the film's Wikipedia entry. Right. 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:51.659 Covering the plot, the bizarre production history, 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:54.019 and some heavy scholarly analysis regarding its 00:01:54.019 --> 00:01:56.299 political and social subtext. We are going to 00:01:56.299 --> 00:01:58.840 figure out how they managed to use this guise 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:01.620 of a cheesy detective story to tell a really 00:02:01.620 --> 00:02:04.900 tragic tale. A tale about bureaucracy, otherness, 00:02:05.060 --> 00:02:09.300 and aliens. Yes. Which is just the weirdest premise 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:12.039 to me. A detective story that flips the script 00:02:12.039 --> 00:02:14.800 so hard. Well, to really analyze it, we have 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:16.680 to look past the surface level entertainment. 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:19.319 We have to view it as a reflection of Soviet 00:02:19.319 --> 00:02:22.240 anxieties. And specifically that tension between 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:25.379 following the rules and actually doing what is 00:02:25.379 --> 00:02:28.060 right. That tension is the absolute heartbeat 00:02:28.060 --> 00:02:31.139 of this film. But before we get to the philosophy, 00:02:31.340 --> 00:02:34.180 we need to set the scene. Yeah. Because the vibe 00:02:34.180 --> 00:02:36.620 of this movie is distinct. Very distinct. It's 00:02:36.620 --> 00:02:39.719 not your standard Soviet realism at all. Let's 00:02:39.719 --> 00:02:41.900 talk about the location. The setting is the hotel 00:02:41.900 --> 00:02:44.159 itself, the Dead Mountaineers. It's located in 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:46.500 a secluded valley in this really remote mountainous 00:02:46.500 --> 00:02:48.719 region. And the source material specifies that 00:02:48.719 --> 00:02:51.379 this is meant to be... A fictional Western country. 00:02:51.539 --> 00:02:54.300 Right. It's like a Soviet dream of what a Western 00:02:54.300 --> 00:02:56.319 ski resort might look like. Which is a perfect 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:57.939 way to put it. Yeah. You have to remember that 00:02:57.939 --> 00:03:01.219 for the Soviet audience in 1979, the West was 00:03:01.219 --> 00:03:04.199 this forbidden neon -lit mystery. Yeah. So the 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:06.879 film creates this uncanny valley version of Europe. 00:03:07.020 --> 00:03:09.900 And the name of the hotel sets the tone immediately. 00:03:10.430 --> 00:03:12.289 Right, because a climber actually died there. 00:03:12.370 --> 00:03:15.229 He fell from a cliff nearby. Exactly. Which honestly 00:03:15.229 --> 00:03:17.349 seems like a terrible marketing strategy for 00:03:17.349 --> 00:03:19.409 a vacation spot. Like, come stay with us. People 00:03:19.409 --> 00:03:22.469 die here. Enjoy the view. I suppose it attracts 00:03:22.469 --> 00:03:26.129 a certain type of clientele. The morbidly curious. 00:03:26.590 --> 00:03:29.310 Definitely. And the film leans hard into that 00:03:29.310 --> 00:03:31.490 grim history. The source mentions that the dead 00:03:31.490 --> 00:03:33.590 climber left behind his faithful St. Bernard 00:03:33.590 --> 00:03:36.539 dog. named Lil. Right, Lil. So you have this 00:03:36.539 --> 00:03:40.139 massive, sad dog wandering the halls, and apparently 00:03:40.139 --> 00:03:42.780 he likes to sleep near a bleeped portrait of 00:03:42.780 --> 00:03:45.539 his deceased master. It's extremely gothic. You 00:03:45.539 --> 00:03:49.039 have this isolation. grief, and a real sense 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:51.419 of being haunted by the past. And all of this 00:03:51.419 --> 00:03:53.419 is established before the plot even really kicks 00:03:53.419 --> 00:03:55.639 in. Yeah. And here is where the production history 00:03:55.639 --> 00:03:57.560 gets kind of funny to me. Oh, the filming locations. 00:03:57.879 --> 00:04:00.719 Yeah. While the story is set in this fictional 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:04.000 neon -lit Western Europe, the reality was quite 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.099 different. It was filmed between 1978 and 1979 00:04:07.099 --> 00:04:10.439 in Kazakhstan. Specifically near the Shembalak 00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:13.180 Ski Resort. Right. That is such a classic movie 00:04:13.180 --> 00:04:15.419 magic trick, turning the mountains of Kazakhstan 00:04:15.419 --> 00:04:18.220 into the Alps. works surprisingly well on screen. 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:20.720 It does. And there is a fun fact I found in the 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:22.500 notes that I absolutely love about the production. 00:04:23.060 --> 00:04:26.199 The lead actor, Oldis Puketis, plays the main 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:28.939 character, Inspector Glebski. Yes, the inspector. 00:04:29.160 --> 00:04:32.220 But Puketis was Latvian. He didn't speak Estonian, 00:04:32.360 --> 00:04:34.100 which was the primary language of the production. 00:04:34.339 --> 00:04:36.879 That is correct. Now, dubbing was very common 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:38.939 in Soviet cinema because of the language diversity 00:04:38.939 --> 00:04:42.019 across the republics. This is a particularly 00:04:42.019 --> 00:04:45.819 special case. Because in the final film, his 00:04:45.819 --> 00:04:48.740 voice isn't even his own. He was dubbed by another 00:04:48.740 --> 00:04:52.620 actor, Arne Uxgula. It adds this whole other 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:55.240 layer of disconnect to the character. Exactly. 00:04:55.240 --> 00:04:58.519 You are watching a Latvian actor filmed in Kazakhstan 00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:00.779 pretending to be a Western European detective 00:05:00.779 --> 00:05:04.519 speaking with an Estonian voice. It sounds chaotic 00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:06.980 when you lay it all out like that, but that disconnect 00:05:06.980 --> 00:05:09.160 actually works perfectly for the character of 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:12.459 Inspector Glutzky. How so? Because he enters 00:05:12.459 --> 00:05:16.480 this strange world as a total outsider. He represents 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:20.240 order. He travels to the hotel following an anonymous 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:23.000 call, which is the classic catalyst for these 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:26.439 stories. He thinks he's there to stop a crime 00:05:26.439 --> 00:05:30.019 or solve a mundane problem. Yeah. He brings his 00:05:30.019 --> 00:05:32.740 badge and his rule book into a place that operates 00:05:32.740 --> 00:05:35.519 on dream logic. And instead of a standard crime 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:38.100 scene, he walks into a room full of eccentric 00:05:38.100 --> 00:05:41.279 weirdos. Very eccentric. Let's introduce this 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:43.500 cast of characters, because this is where the 00:05:43.500 --> 00:05:46.060 Agatha Christie locked room mystery vibes really 00:05:46.060 --> 00:05:47.879 ramp up. Okay, let's go through the guest list. 00:05:48.019 --> 00:05:49.980 You've got the inspector, obviously. Then there's 00:05:49.980 --> 00:05:51.959 Mr. and Mrs. Moses. Who are wealthy and very 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:54.000 strange. Right. There's a guy named Olaf and 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:57.800 Varifors. And then there is Larvik. Larvik is 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:01.199 particularly interesting. The source notes that 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:03.759 he cannot even utter a couple of words. Yeah. 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:06.420 He just materializes later in the story almost 00:06:06.420 --> 00:06:08.699 out of thin air. It totally feels like a setup 00:06:08.699 --> 00:06:10.779 for a game of Clue. You are just waiting for 00:06:10.779 --> 00:06:12.899 someone to get bonked on the head with a candlestick. 00:06:12.939 --> 00:06:15.139 The film wants you to settle in. It wants you 00:06:15.139 --> 00:06:16.879 to think you know the rules of the game. You 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:19.699 start analyzing motives. Is it the rich couple? 00:06:19.899 --> 00:06:23.629 Is it the quiet guy? Precisely. It lulls you 00:06:23.629 --> 00:06:26.290 into a false sense of security with these very 00:06:26.290 --> 00:06:30.290 familiar tropes. You're looking for alibis. But 00:06:30.290 --> 00:06:33.230 then the shift happens. And it is a seismic shift. 00:06:33.629 --> 00:06:35.589 Let's unpack this twist. Because if you were 00:06:35.589 --> 00:06:38.750 watching this in 1979 without any spoilers, your 00:06:38.750 --> 00:06:41.069 jaw probably would have hit the floor. Oh, undoubtedly. 00:06:41.670 --> 00:06:44.029 We aren't dealing with jewel thieves or jealous 00:06:44.029 --> 00:06:46.610 lovers here. Not at all. We find out that almost 00:06:46.610 --> 00:06:49.990 all these strange lodgers are not human at all. 00:06:50.110 --> 00:06:53.480 Right. Mr. Moses and the silent Lou Arvik. They 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:56.220 are actually aliens. Aliens. In a noir detective 00:06:56.220 --> 00:06:58.720 movie? It is so jarring. And it gets even more 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:00.680 complex than that. Because of Mrs. Moses and 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:03.560 Olaf. Right. They look like ordinary people and 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:06.180 they act somewhat like people. But they are actually 00:07:06.180 --> 00:07:09.500 robots. Or constructs, essentially, created by 00:07:09.500 --> 00:07:11.540 the aliens. So we have extraterrestrials and 00:07:11.540 --> 00:07:14.579 androids hanging out at a ski lodge. And Inspector 00:07:14.579 --> 00:07:17.439 Glebski, this poor guy, is just trying to figure 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:19.660 out normal detective stuff. He's totally out 00:07:19.660 --> 00:07:21.829 of his depth. It disrupts everything he knows 00:07:21.829 --> 00:07:24.189 about his job and his reality. And the aliens 00:07:24.189 --> 00:07:25.990 are actually in trouble. This isn't an invasion 00:07:25.990 --> 00:07:29.449 story. No. The source explicitly describes it 00:07:29.449 --> 00:07:32.129 as a calamity they are suffering in the mountains. 00:07:32.189 --> 00:07:34.269 Right. They are effectively refugees trying to 00:07:34.269 --> 00:07:37.230 survive. But then the genre conventions of the 00:07:37.230 --> 00:07:39.569 mystery crash right back in. The weather. Yes. 00:07:40.189 --> 00:07:43.170 A heavy snowfall hits. The classic cutoff from 00:07:43.170 --> 00:07:45.290 the outside world trope. You can't have a hotel 00:07:45.290 --> 00:07:47.370 mystery without a blizzard trapping everyone 00:07:47.370 --> 00:07:50.709 inside. Exactly. The hotel is isolated. And then 00:07:50.709 --> 00:07:54.889 a body appears. Finally, a dead body. This is 00:07:54.889 --> 00:07:56.930 exactly what Inspector Glebski has been waiting 00:07:56.930 --> 00:07:59.389 for. He has been itching to use his badge. He 00:07:59.389 --> 00:08:01.750 finally has a recognizable problem. He's like, 00:08:01.769 --> 00:08:04.930 aha, a corpse. Now I know what to do. And that 00:08:04.930 --> 00:08:07.949 is where the ideological conflict really ignites. 00:08:08.430 --> 00:08:11.029 Glebski sees a body specifically, the pseudo 00:08:11.029 --> 00:08:13.629 -murder of Olaf, the robot, and he initiates 00:08:13.629 --> 00:08:15.910 an investigation. Right. The text notes he uses 00:08:15.910 --> 00:08:18.160 all of his standard skills. He treats it like 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:21.279 a mundane crime scene. But you cannot use standard 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:23.779 skills on a robot murder mystery involving aliens. 00:08:23.899 --> 00:08:25.740 That is the whole problem. He's trying to apply 00:08:25.740 --> 00:08:27.519 the penal code to a science fiction scenario. 00:08:27.860 --> 00:08:30.399 It's absurd. He's asking questions like, where 00:08:30.399 --> 00:08:32.799 were you on the night of the 14th? And the suspect 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:35.799 is literally from another galaxy. That is exactly 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:37.679 the point the Strogatzky brothers are making 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:40.580 here. You have a system, represented by Glewski, 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:43.360 that is designed to categorize things, to follow 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:46.889 procedure, to find a criminal and a victim. But 00:08:46.889 --> 00:08:50.309 the reality he is facing is completely outside 00:08:50.309 --> 00:08:54.330 that system. The investigation comes to a complete 00:08:54.330 --> 00:08:57.350 standstill. Because the logic of a police procedural 00:08:57.350 --> 00:08:59.970 doesn't apply to extraterrestrial survival. It's 00:08:59.970 --> 00:09:02.190 like trying to arrest a thunderstorm for trespassing. 00:09:02.250 --> 00:09:04.350 It just doesn't work. So you have this standoff. 00:09:04.429 --> 00:09:06.929 Right. The true nature of the guests is finally 00:09:06.929 --> 00:09:09.210 revealed to Gloveski. Yeah. They aren't bad guys. 00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:12.259 They are just trying to leave Earth safely. They 00:09:12.259 --> 00:09:14.559 need to get out. Which brings us to the climax. 00:09:14.820 --> 00:09:17.000 And this is really the emotional core of the 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:19.279 film. The genre shift is totally complete by 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:21.259 this point. It stops being about who did it and 00:09:21.259 --> 00:09:23.840 starts being about what will Glebski do. This 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:26.080 is the moment where the detective usually steps 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:29.379 up and becomes the hero. Right. The intricate 00:09:29.379 --> 00:09:32.159 plot has unraveled. We know they are aliens. 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:35.399 We know they need to escape. And suddenly, a 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:37.620 military helicopter appears. The authorities 00:09:37.620 --> 00:09:40.240 are closing in. This is their window. They can 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:42.879 go. They just need the inspector to let them 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:45.419 go. Glebski holds all the cards here. He has 00:09:45.419 --> 00:09:48.960 the chance to do, as the source puts it, a great 00:09:48.960 --> 00:09:50.960 service to the aliens. Yeah. He could look the 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:53.860 other way. He could recognize that the laws he 00:09:53.860 --> 00:09:56.059 follows were not written for this situation. 00:09:56.809 --> 00:09:59.350 He could show some empathy. Because he knows 00:09:59.350 --> 00:10:02.710 morally that they are harmless. Exactly. But 00:10:02.710 --> 00:10:04.909 he doesn't. No, he doesn't. And this is what 00:10:04.909 --> 00:10:06.929 is so frustrating but also so brilliant about 00:10:06.929 --> 00:10:09.470 the story. Glebski behaves like a typical cop. 00:10:09.750 --> 00:10:11.889 The source material uses a very specific phrase 00:10:11.889 --> 00:10:14.330 here. It says he remains subordinate to common 00:10:14.330 --> 00:10:17.409 sense and official instructions. That phrase 00:10:17.409 --> 00:10:19.950 is chilling in this context. Subordinate to common 00:10:19.950 --> 00:10:21.990 sense. Because common sense dictates you cannot 00:10:21.990 --> 00:10:24.769 let suspects leave the scene of a crime. Even 00:10:24.769 --> 00:10:27.269 if the suspect is a space traveler and the crime 00:10:27.269 --> 00:10:29.649 is a complete misunderstanding of what a robot 00:10:29.649 --> 00:10:32.870 even is, he retreats into the safety of the rulebook. 00:10:32.990 --> 00:10:36.070 And because he chooses protocol over empathy, 00:10:36.330 --> 00:10:39.750 the outcome is incredibly tragic. It really is. 00:10:39.909 --> 00:10:42.629 The source is very clear on this. His adherence 00:10:42.629 --> 00:10:45.389 to the rules leads to the authorities intervening 00:10:45.389 --> 00:10:48.059 and the aliens are destroyed. We do not get a 00:10:48.059 --> 00:10:50.480 happy E .T. ending here. There are no flying 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:53.279 bicycles. We get a man standing in the snow realizing 00:10:53.279 --> 00:10:56.720 he made a terrible mistake. The film ends with 00:10:56.720 --> 00:10:59.299 the inspector plagued by doubts, wondering if 00:10:59.299 --> 00:11:01.759 he did everything he could. It's a massive anti 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:04.539 -hero moment. Usually the detective solves the 00:11:04.539 --> 00:11:06.539 puzzle and restores order. Here the detective 00:11:06.539 --> 00:11:09.340 enforces the order and by doing so destroys something 00:11:09.340 --> 00:11:12.059 unique. He fails the moral test by passing the 00:11:12.059 --> 00:11:14.519 legal one. That is a heavy ending for what started 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:17.450 as a quirky hotel mystery. But it makes perfect 00:11:17.450 --> 00:11:19.250 sense when you realize where this came from. 00:11:19.370 --> 00:11:21.389 Let's dig into the subtext. This is where the 00:11:21.389 --> 00:11:23.669 scholarly analysis comes in. Right. Because in 00:11:23.669 --> 00:11:26.330 1979, the Strogatzky brothers were not just writing 00:11:26.330 --> 00:11:28.289 about aliens. They were writing a reflection 00:11:28.289 --> 00:11:31.750 of the Soviet era. Absolutely. The source references 00:11:31.750 --> 00:11:35.450 a really fascinating 2015 article by Eva Neropea 00:11:35.450 --> 00:11:37.909 and Henriette Siderleff. And they look at the 00:11:37.909 --> 00:11:40.340 film through a few different lenses. Let's start 00:11:40.340 --> 00:11:42.600 with the visual style. They call it a blend of 00:11:42.600 --> 00:11:45.240 science fiction and film noir, which sounds incredible. 00:11:45.580 --> 00:11:47.480 And it was highly recognized for that aesthetic. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:51.220 The film won awards for best cinematography, 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:54.639 shot by Jerry Szilard. Right. It also won a special 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:58.159 prize for novel expression in film music by Sven 00:11:58.159 --> 00:12:01.320 Grunberg. I read about that. Grunberg used this 00:12:01.320 --> 00:12:05.120 synth -heavy ambient score to really emphasize 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:08.610 the otherness of the environment. Exactly. Aesthetically, 00:12:08.649 --> 00:12:12.610 it was mixing these moody noir shadows with futuristic 00:12:12.610 --> 00:12:15.870 alien sounds. It creates a profound sense of 00:12:15.870 --> 00:12:18.409 alienation right from the opening frames. But 00:12:18.409 --> 00:12:20.230 beneath the cool lighting and the synth music, 00:12:20.490 --> 00:12:22.350 the scholars argue there is a deep political 00:12:22.350 --> 00:12:24.850 allegory. Right. You can't make a film like this 00:12:24.850 --> 00:12:26.690 in the Soviet Union at that time without touching 00:12:26.690 --> 00:12:29.340 on the system. Narapia and Sidolov suggest the 00:12:29.340 --> 00:12:32.039 film touches upon the inherent tensions and social 00:12:32.039 --> 00:12:35.940 anxieties of the crudely communist Soviet regime. 00:12:36.259 --> 00:12:38.740 And it's a very nuanced critique. It's not just 00:12:38.740 --> 00:12:41.500 a basic anti -government stance. What's the specific 00:12:41.500 --> 00:12:44.340 angle they found? They argue it deals with Soviet 00:12:44.340 --> 00:12:47.340 nationalism versus the existence of non -Russian 00:12:47.340 --> 00:12:49.480 ethnic groups. Oh, that makes sense. Think about 00:12:49.480 --> 00:12:51.679 the aliens. They are the ultimate outsiders. 00:12:52.409 --> 00:12:54.389 They have their own way of being, their own language, 00:12:54.450 --> 00:12:57.250 or in Lewarvik's case, a lack thereof. And they 00:12:57.250 --> 00:12:59.610 simply want to exist. And the authority figure, 00:12:59.769 --> 00:13:02.730 Glebsky, cannot handle that. He needs them to 00:13:02.730 --> 00:13:05.769 fit into his specific bureaucratic box. And if 00:13:05.769 --> 00:13:08.190 they don't fit, they are perceived as a threat. 00:13:08.539 --> 00:13:11.840 The source analysis explicitly says this reflects 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:14.440 the threat posed to the language, culture and 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:16.740 the very existence of non -Russian ethnic groups. 00:13:16.940 --> 00:13:19.620 It is a story about a powerful center trying 00:13:19.620 --> 00:13:22.120 to control and categorize the other. And we have 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:24.600 to remember, this is an Estonian film. Estonia 00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:27.580 was part of the USSR, but culturally very distinct. 00:13:27.879 --> 00:13:29.919 The tension of feeling like a stranger in your 00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:32.220 own land would have resonated deeply with the 00:13:32.220 --> 00:13:34.139 local audience. That actually makes the whole 00:13:34.139 --> 00:13:36.960 production history even more relevant. Filmed 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:39.460 in Kazakhstan, dubbed into Estonian, starring 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:41.980 a Latvian. It's a meta -commentary on the Soviet 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:44.580 Union itself. A collection of different nations 00:13:44.580 --> 00:13:47.580 held together by a rigid central authority, all 00:13:47.580 --> 00:13:50.059 struggling to communicate. And the analysis goes 00:13:50.059 --> 00:13:53.480 even further into the concept of identity. Narapia 00:13:53.480 --> 00:13:57.039 and Siderlof identify gender identity as a major 00:13:57.039 --> 00:13:59.059 theme in the film. That surprised me when I read 00:13:59.059 --> 00:14:01.440 the notes. Finding themes of gender identity 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:04.960 in a 1979 Soviet sci -fi film seems very forward 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:07.379 thinking. It is forward thinking. The scholars 00:14:07.379 --> 00:14:10.220 point out that the film actively denies heteronormativity 00:14:10.220 --> 00:14:13.419 as the sole accepted coordinate system. Let's 00:14:13.419 --> 00:14:15.379 break that down for the listener. How does a 00:14:15.379 --> 00:14:18.860 movie about a hotel detective challenge heteronormativity? 00:14:19.139 --> 00:14:21.919 It comes back to the robots and the aliens. They 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:24.299 appear as men and women. Mr. and Mrs. Moses, 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:27.039 Olaf. But those are just shells. Right. Their 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:29.460 true nature isn't defined by human biology or 00:14:29.460 --> 00:14:32.700 traditional gender roles. Olaf, the character 00:14:32.700 --> 00:14:35.120 who was murdered, has a very ambiguous quality 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:37.600 once you realize he's a robot. He isn't a man 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:40.120 in the biological sense. Exactly. The source 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:42.240 article notes this parallels the Soviet authorities' 00:14:42.500 --> 00:14:45.080 attempts to combat otherness, whether that otherness 00:14:45.080 --> 00:14:48.019 is ideological, ethnic, or sexual identity. So 00:14:48.019 --> 00:14:50.580 the aliens and robots serve as a metaphor for 00:14:50.580 --> 00:14:53.580 anyone who didn't fit the rigid mold of Soviet 00:14:53.580 --> 00:14:56.740 society. Precisely. If you were different in 00:14:56.740 --> 00:14:59.879 any way, you were a problem to be solved by the 00:14:59.879 --> 00:15:02.379 state apparatus. And that is why Glipsky's failure 00:15:02.379 --> 00:15:04.940 at the end is so poignant. He represents that 00:15:04.940 --> 00:15:07.440 apparatus. He isn't a villain in the traditional 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:10.580 sense. He doesn't actively hate the aliens. Right. 00:15:10.659 --> 00:15:13.139 He's just a guy doing his job. But he is a villain 00:15:13.139 --> 00:15:16.080 because he cannot imagine a world outside of 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:19.120 his official instructions. He lacks the imagination 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:21.740 to accept the other on his own terms. He tries 00:15:21.740 --> 00:15:24.500 to force the alien square peg into the bureaucratic 00:15:24.500 --> 00:15:27.299 round hole, and he breaks the peg. That's a great 00:15:27.299 --> 00:15:29.679 way to summarize it. It's devastating. And honestly, 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:33.139 it feels shockingly modern. How often do we still 00:15:33.139 --> 00:15:35.120 see tragedies happen today just because someone 00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:37.559 was just following procedure? It is a timeless 00:15:37.559 --> 00:15:40.299 dilemma. The Strogatzky brothers were masters 00:15:40.299 --> 00:15:43.559 at smuggling these very human political critiques 00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:46.320 into their fiction. They lure you in with a robot 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:48.559 mystery and they leave you questioning the nature 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:50.980 of authority. And your own complicity in it. 00:15:51.240 --> 00:15:53.980 It's why this film and their other works endure. 00:15:54.259 --> 00:15:57.000 It's about the soul, not just the sci -fi gadgets. 00:15:57.299 --> 00:16:00.039 It absolutely forces the viewer to ask themselves 00:16:00.039 --> 00:16:02.639 what they would do in that situation. Most of 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:04.679 us like to think we would see past the rulebook. 00:16:04.860 --> 00:16:06.840 But Glefsky probably thought he was a good man, 00:16:06.879 --> 00:16:09.799 too. He was protecting the peace. The tragedy 00:16:09.799 --> 00:16:12.000 was that his enforcement of the rules was just 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:15.700 protocol, just paperwork. So to recap this journey 00:16:15.700 --> 00:16:18.980 for everyone listening, we've gone from a snowbound 00:16:18.980 --> 00:16:22.299 hotel in a fictional West. Filmed in Kazakhstan. 00:16:22.539 --> 00:16:26.139 Right. To a tragic encounter with extraterrestrial 00:16:26.139 --> 00:16:29.460 life that ends in profound regret. I think the 00:16:29.460 --> 00:16:31.440 key takeaway from all the sources we reviewed 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:34.639 is that the film serves as a mirror for the human 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:37.000 condition. Specifically, that struggle between 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:39.720 institutional rules and individual morality. 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:43.059 Glevsky had a choice. He had the power to act 00:16:43.059 --> 00:16:45.779 with compassion, but he was paralyzed by the 00:16:45.779 --> 00:16:48.419 rules he served. So the lesson here is recognize 00:16:48.419 --> 00:16:50.940 when your common sense is actually just a fear 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:53.460 of something you don't understand. And recognize 00:16:53.460 --> 00:16:55.940 when a rule is simply inapplicable to the reality 00:16:55.940 --> 00:16:57.840 in front of you. That is definitely something 00:16:57.840 --> 00:16:59.480 to keep in mind the next time you check into 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:02.000 a hotel and see a bleak painting of a mountain 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.279 climber on the wall. And maybe be nice to the 00:17:04.279 --> 00:17:06.839 sad St. Bernard wandering the hall. Always be 00:17:06.839 --> 00:17:10.170 nice to the dog. But seriously. Here's a provocative 00:17:10.170 --> 00:17:12.470 thought to leave you with today. Go for it. We 00:17:12.470 --> 00:17:14.970 all like to think we would be the hero. We watch 00:17:14.970 --> 00:17:17.630 movies to see the rebels win, to see the protagonist 00:17:17.630 --> 00:17:20.730 save the alien and break the unjust rule. It's 00:17:20.730 --> 00:17:23.529 what we expect. But if you were Inspector Glipsky, 00:17:23.650 --> 00:17:26.130 standing out there in the snow, faced with something 00:17:26.130 --> 00:17:28.269 that violated every rule of common sense and 00:17:28.269 --> 00:17:30.150 official instruction you would have ever known, 00:17:30.269 --> 00:17:33.450 would you actually have the courage to break 00:17:33.450 --> 00:17:37.029 protocol? Or would you let the tragedy play out 00:17:37.029 --> 00:17:39.750 just to stay safe? Something to think about. 00:17:39.849 --> 00:17:42.890 A difficult question to answer, honestly. Thanks 00:17:42.890 --> 00:17:45.410 for joining us on this deep dive into Dead Mountaineers 00:17:45.410 --> 00:17:47.710 Hotel. We will catch you on the next one. Take 00:17:47.710 --> 00:17:47.869 care.