Ugly Swans – A Psychoanalytic Analysis of the Film.

 

A missed opportunity.

 

The film’s main focus is its plotline: disjointed, illogical, and convoluted. Scenes cut off abruptly, transitions between scenes seem unfounded, and the dialogue is at times abstract, as if the characters are in a half-asleep state. This immerses us in the feeling that we are watching a long dream, which gives us every right to interpret the film as one big dream. The main character, Viktor Banev, symbolically represents the director Konstantin Lopushansky himself.

 

Lyudmila is the image of Konstantin’s mother: an energetic, active, phallic figure, alongside whom only a man like Igor can exist, who is a symbolic portrait of Lopushansky’s father. Thus, we are presented with an illustration of a decompensated Oedipus complex, where the son symbolically "marries" his mother and eliminates the father. It is known that the director’s father died when he was six years old, and his mother, after her husband’s death, led a vibrant life with men like Igor. Thus, Igor becomes a symbol of the castration of the "masculine" principle, and Ira Baneva – the embodiment of the mystery of Konstantin himself.

 

The presence of a pronounced Oedipus complex and the symbolic image of the castration of the "masculine" in Lopushansky’s life leads to the fact that, as a child, he identifies with the feminine path. The secrecy surrounding his private life confirms that he has no spouse. This means that in Lopushansky’s psychological reality, his traumatic aspect – fixed in prepuberty – lives on in the internal object of Ira Baneva.

 

The dwarf-scientist is a countertransference of Victor and, consequently, of Lopushansky. The dream in which Victor clearly sees the house number and the place where the dwarf lives is the strongest argument in favor of the idea that the dwarf’s fate is Victor’s/Konstantin’s fate. The dwarf leads a reclusive life; his work goes unappreciated; no one needs him. His physical disability becomes a metaphor for the impossibility of existing among healthy and happy people. His only companion is a cat – a symbol of narcissism and a delusion of omnipotence. Victor’s encounter with the dwarf becomes a confrontation with his own inner disability, worthlessness, uselessness, and loneliness. However, after their conversation, it becomes clear that pride had prevented Victor from seeing the truth about himself.

 

A significant episode in Lopushansky’s biography was his acquaintance with Andrei Tarkovsky as a student during the filming of Stalker. This encounter shaped his creative path. Lopushansky dreamed of replicating Tarkovsky’s success and even surpassing his genius. However, Tarkovsky remained forever the first and only one. When Tarkovsky emigrated, Lopushansky took the liberty of declaring that he had "fled," while Lopushansky himself became the defender of his legacy in his homeland.

 

Later, Lopushansky met the Strugatsky brothers. They did not approve of his screenplay based on the book The Ugly Swans and refused to grant permission for its film adaptation. Only years later, after the death of the older brother – Arkady Strugatsky – did Lopushansky manage to obtain permission from Boris Strugatsky to shoot the film according to his own vision. The Mokrets are archetypal images of the Priest and the Sage, symbolizing all of Lopushansky’s teachers and the very conscience within the psychological reality of every man.

 

It is precisely his conscience that compels Victor to travel to Tashlinsk – the place from which he once fled and which serves as a metaphor for the director’s psychological trauma. Throughout the film, he asks his colleagues, "Who are the Mokrets?" He attempts to justify his lack of conscience by the fact that even the most distinguished professors do not know the answer. The Mokrets’ energy barrier is a psychological defense mechanism and a shell of narcissism. To venture into psychological trauma is to take a risk. Viktor’s very arrival in Tashlinsk suggests that the protagonist possesses this capacity for risk, which, in an ideal scenario, should lead him to healing. But this does not happen.

 

Endless rains, water flooding the streets and houses, streaming down windows, dripping from ceilings – this is a symbol of the unconscious, flooding the homes, streets, and consciousness of the characters. In the sky, Victor notices a red divine eye – a sign of the highest truth, hinting at the possibility of salvation for Ira and the Mokretsovs. But it does not save them.

 

And now we must recall a crucial scene from Konstantin Lopushansky’s biography, which, in our view, is the greatest trauma in the director’s life and, consequently, the main reason for the creation of the film Ugly Swans. As a child in Dnipropetrovsk, he and some other children set fire to an underground film storage facility. Some of the boys were still inside when the film ignited, causing an instant explosion. The column of smoke that burst out through the narrow exit of the vault resembled a mushroom cloud. Lopushansky said that the visual style of this event drew him in. He recalled how greenish-yellow civil defense posters with images of people in gas masks hung all around.

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He recreated this scene in the film: Viktor leads the children into the bomb shelter, closes the hatch behind him, looks out the porthole, and sees poisonous smoke seeping into the corridor through the air vent. Three light bulbs explode one after another – a symbol of knowledge, the teacher-Genius, and the father. These three lamps are a metaphor for the deaths of the fathers of Lopushansky, Tarkovsky, and Arkady Strugatsky. Choking on the smoke, Ira asks Victor to read to her. He chooses Boris Pasternak’s poem "Around the Bend" – a reference to that very bend where Konstantin stood as a child, watching the children set fire to the film reel. At that moment, it becomes clear: Victor will not save the children. This is a symbol of the triumph of the Cain Archetype – envy, pride, and the narcissistic right to judge who shall live and who shall die. Everyone perishes. The light fades. In the finale, we see the research institute and Ira, who has long been subjected to cruel experiments and transformed into a mindless biological creature. She is no more.

 

Any trauma always seeks to repeat itself until a man gains awareness and embarks on the path of acceptance, repentance, and humility, symbolized by the archetype of the Prodigal Son. In the film, Viktor Banev embodies this archetype by returning to Tashlinsk, the city of his psychological trauma. However, his inability to recognize his own mistakes, overcome his pride, and realize his responsibility leads to a repetition of the trauma and the impossibility of healing. But fate is merciful – it gives a man many chances to correct their mistakes.

 

Ugly Swans is the story of a man who was given several chances to correct his mistakes, but he did not take advantage of them. A true artist is one who shows the viewer a way out of trouble, a path to overcoming narcissism and pride, and an understanding of repentance as a necessary stage of development. Lopushansky does not do this. Therefore, we cannot call this film a true work of art, and we call the director Lopushansky a bad artist.