Killed by lightning (Ubitye molniey)

Yufit perseveres in making uneasy films. Certainly in view of the difficult situation of the Russian film industry, this can be described as admirable. He regards himself as an advocate of necro-realism - and is also the only film maker representing this tendency. In his previous film, "Silverheads", he was primarily fascinated by the (pseudo)science and the sense and nonsense of the human being. This fascination is also strikingly present in "Killed by Lightning". A Russian science-fiction film with, as unlikely source of inspiration, the well-known story by Edgar Allan Poe: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", in which an ape is responsible for a cruel murder. A woman is involved in an anthropological investigation into the first steps in the evolution from ape to man. The story of the film unfolds primarily in her subconscious. Prehistoric ghostly images from her investigation and memories of the dramatic death of her father - who died when she was still a little girl, when the submarine of which he was captain sunk - come together and form a very unexpected theory about the evolution of man. (Film Festival Rotterdam)