Can Animals Think?

Oleg Feofanov’s book on ideological manipulation in the USA inspired Felix Sobolev’s final film – he died during its problematic preparations. A penetrating insight into the advertising mechanisms of political campaigns and the ways of influencing social opinion is created with a striking assemblage of advertising, political speeches, and recordings of social unrest. Acting in counterpoint to the image is the narrator’s corrective commentary, which, in its intentionally anti-bourgeois rhetoric, demonstrates the fact that we are already living in an Orwellian world.

The successful acquisition of foreign languages is generally blocked by psychological barriers. A group of Soviet philologists developed a revolutionary methodology for accelerated learning that relies on a positive attitude, suggestion, and teaching in the form of games. During 24 sessions we follow the gradual progress of two groups of students, which could be described as the first Soviet psychological reality show. Learning as continuous entertainment that breaks down complexes is an inspirational contribution not only to the topic of education, but also a reflection of the functioning of the human psyche.

One photograph and unsettling letters, underscored by a band of abstract images, create Sobolev’s most striking film. A portrait of an unknown soldier, published in the memoirs of Marshall Zhukov, provoked a massive response in readers. In the dour face covered in dust, many recognized their sons, fathers, brothers. Sobolev brings the face described in the letters to life and each allows us to experience the transformation of his perception. By zooming in or multiplying a single photo, he manages to speak about the fate of an entire nation.

Has the capacity of the human brain already been exhausted due to information overload? Sobolev posed this question at the end of the 1960s after a hidden camera recorded the results of a university entrance exam. The director, renowned for his belief in the endless possibilities of humanity, created a participatory documentary in which he filmed experiments with people with phenomenal abilities under the guidance of professors from the Academy of Sciences. Scientific analysis of the nature of hypnosis, telepathy, and dermo-optical perception reveals potential avenues to expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.

A radical reflection - both in form and content - on man’s mission on earth and the responsibility of humanity for its further development. Sobolev’s film essay disengages from the objective world and using inventive visual techniques, seeks its own transcendental shape. Within Soviet cinema, or rather its documentary direction, the film is a unique appeal to think about the future not from the perspective of individual states and ideologically allied territories, but at the level of development of the entire planet.

In the heyday of space travel, the problem of understanding the languages of other creatures became a more universal topic. The director sought the answer to the question as to whether or not we are capable of deciphering the language system of another civilization by researching the communications of the oldest inhabitants of our planet. We observe the ritualized expressions of the basic instincts of ants, bees, fish and birds up close in both natural conditions and staged laboratory experiments. Sobolev’s unique (for the time) footage of the animal kingdom earned him fame at home and abroad.