The Adventures of Elektronik

The Adventures of Elektronik is a 1979 Soviet children's science fiction TV miniseries, directed by Konstantin Bromberg.
The series' screenplay was loosely adapted by Yevgeny Veltistov from his own children's novels, Elektronik – the Boy from the Suitcase ''Ressy – an Elusive Friend, and Conqueror of the impossible''. The TV premiere was on 2 May 1980. The film achieved a cult status among the Soviet kids.

Plot summary

A robot named Elektronik escapes from Professor Gromov's laboratory. The robot looks exactly like Sergey Syroezhkin, a boy from a magazine cover, who was chosen by Gromov as a model to construct Elektronik.
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, the gang's most skillful member to find and kidnap Elektronik. They want to organize the "crime of the century" with the use of his extraordinary abilities.

Cast

Yury Torsuyev as Sergey Syroyezhkin
Vladimir Torsuyev as Elektronik
Vasily Skromny as Makar Gusev
Oksana Alekseyeva as Maya Svetlova
Maksim Kalinin as Maksim Korol'kov
Dmitri Maksimov as Viktor Smirnov
Evgeny Livshits as Chizhikov
Valeriya Soluyan as Zoya Kukushkina
Oksana Fandera as an unnamed schoolgirl who gets Chizhikov's name wrong.
Vladimir Basov as Stump
Nikolai Karachentsov as Urrie
Nikolai Grinko as Prof. Viktor Ivanovich Gromov
Yelizaveta Nikishchikhina as Masha, Gromov's assistant
Yevgeny Vesnik as Taratar, the math teacher
Maya Bulgakova as School's headmistress
Nikolay Boyarsky as Rostik, the gymnastics teacher
Roza Makagonova as singing lessons teacher
Nataliya Vasazhenko as Sergey's mother
Yuri Chernov as Sergey'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 Elektronik 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 Elektronik 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 Yevgeni Krylatov. The songs were performed in the film by Yelena Kamburova, Yelena Shuenkova and the chorus; no actors, except for Karachentsov and Basov, were afforded an opportunity to sing.