Soviet Lord of the Rings

Embedded below are parts 1 and 2 of a recently-found TV production of The Lord of the Rings that's doing the rounds. The special attraction: it was made in Russia near the end of the Soviet era and is a wild mix of harsh video effects, peculiar adaptational decisions and general weirdness. But it is no I Am Very Glad, as I'm Finally Returning Back Home. It works best as an idea you have of it after seeing screenshots. Actually watching it in motion is quite gruelling. As The Guardian reports:

The 1991 made-for-TV film, Khraniteli, based on Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, is the only adaptation of his Lord of the Rings trilogy believed to have been made in the Soviet Union. Aired 10 years before the release of the first instalment of Peter Jackson's movie trilogy, the low-budget film appears ripped from another age: the costumes and sets are rudimentary, the special effects are ludicrous, and many of the scenes look more like a theatre production than a feature-length film. …

"There should be a statue to the person who found and digitised this," one commenter posted.