Arkady and Boris Strugatsky reigned supreme over Soviet science fiction for more than three decades, building an incredibly rich archive of speculative fiction, full of internal coherence and paradox reflecting profound shifts in Soviet society and ideology. Co-presented by Pushkin House and Klassiki, the season After Utopia: The Strugatsky Brothers on Film explores the long shadow the pair cast over Russian and Soviet cinema with screenings of four classic adaptations of their work.

What did the Strugatskys mean for readers and cinema audiences in their time, and what do they tell us today? A companion to the four films, this conversation sets out to explore these questions. Science fiction experts and practitioners Adam Roberts and Mark Bould will offer their insights into the world of the Brothers’ writing and its afterlives on screen, discussing the political, environmental and artistic implications of their distinctive brand of speculative thinking. Do we live in the post-utopian world the Strugatskys described, and if so, can their work help us navigate it? The event will be chaired by Samuel Goff, editorial director of Klassiki, and feature presentations from the speakers as well as conversation with the audience.

Mark Bould is Professor of Film and Literature at the University of the West of England. He founded the journal Science Fiction Film and Television and the book series Studies in Global Science Fiction. Most recently, he is the author of The Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe Culture (2021) and a co-editor of This Is Not A Science Fiction Textbook (2024) and The New Routledge Companion to Science Fiction (2024). He is currently writing Climate Monsters.

Adam Roberts is Professor of Nineteenth-century Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway University of London. He is the author of twenty-six novels, all but one of them science fiction. His most recent publications are Fantasy: a Short History (Bloomsbury 2026) and the novels Frankenstein Rex (Victor Gollancz 2026) and Beowulf in Hel (Wizard's Tower 2027).

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