Celluloid is a sea of unfathomable depth, the amount of works that have gone unnoticed throughout its more than film years of history, or that have fallen into oblivion prey to the ostracism of old national productions, tragic accidents or the tyranny of marketing and its evolution is incalculable. AND This is demonstrated by works such as the one that concerns us today, a rediscovered (I assume that in the West) Russian version of The Lord of the Rings. A curious and unexpected product that you can enjoy right now on Youtube.
The film was released three decades ago and is about a Soviet production intended to adapt the adventures of Frodo and company, of which many of us do not remember any news. We talk about a low-budget job, closer to the theater than to today’s television production, something that was also very typical of the time. But the effort made in the costumes and the inclusion of original special effects that were intended to replace the notorious technical deficiencies when trying bring The Fellowship of the Ring to the small screen.
The film, titled Khraniteli, It was issued 10 years before the release of the first film in the Peter Jackson trilogy and 13 years after the version taken to the cinema by Ralph Bakshi. It is believed to be the only adaptation of the Middle-earth universe made on Soviet territory. The discovery has come from the hand of 5TV, the successor to Leningrad Television, who posted the video that accompanies this news on YouTube last week, and his counter has already reached more than 800,000 visits. Finally, to Tolkien fans who were disappointed by the absence of Tom Bombadil in the American version may be interested to know that they can enjoy the character in all its glory if you give this peculiar Russian adaptation of The Lord of the rings.