The Asthenic Syndrome
- heavy
- measured
- surreal
- bleak
- cold
- signature
Heavy, measured, measured drama / ukrainian, surreal in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.
How every film is hand-scored →In the old days it was called hypochrondria, or black melancholia. Now, apparently, it's termed the Asthenic Syndrome. Whatever it is, Nikolai, a teacher of epicly indifferent pupils, has got it, and it's not much fun.
Our read · The Asthenic Syndrome (1989) reads as a heavy, measured, surreal drama · ukrainian entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.
More info & search links
The shape of The Asthenic Syndrome
What watching it is actually like.
“You want a challenging avant-garde Soviet film dissecting apathy and rage in society.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if long runtime, full-frontal nudity, animal cruelty or experimental style overwhelm you.
The reading.
Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.
Eight films that read most like this one.
Closeness in the twelve-axis space — how the film actually reads, not “people also liked.”
Discussion
What does your Movie DNA look like?
Rate a few films you've seen. We map your taste across the same twelve axes and find the films you'll actually want to watch tonight.
Calibrate yourself