The St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) hosted a pre-premiere screening of a new documentary, Easter Island. Russian Cipher. The film was directed by Sergey Brilev, a television journalist, Doctor of Historical Sciences and President of the Global Energy Association. The screening was part of the cultural program of this year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The film will be broadcast across TV channels of the VGTRK network shortly. The project, sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Culture, is dedicated to the unyielding efforts of Russian researchers to unravel the mysteries of one of the most remote corners of the Earth—Easter Island, located in the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean.
The film has two storylines. First, it speaks about the island itself, its mysterious nature and the famous stone idols carved from volcanic tuff. The audience attending the event was able to see unique footage shot from a bird’s eye view, which conveys the expanse, isolation and mystical atmosphere of the place.
The second storyline features the highlights in the history of deciphering the rongorongo script—curious glyphs incised in wood by the islanders. The famous Russian traveler Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay was one of the first to introduce them to Russia: He brought two tablets with signs made with a shark’s tooth.
In 1925, these artifacts were systematically described for the first time by the oceanographer Alexander Piotrovsky, an uncle of the future director of the State Hermitage. And in the early 1940s, schoolboy Boris Kudryavtsev, a member of a school ethnographic club, was the first to discover the similarity of the inscriptions on the tablets in Leningrad and Santiago de Chile. More than half a century later, linguist Albert Davletshin also undertook the decipherment of the Easter Island texts. His work is based on the findings of the great Russian scholar Yury Knorozov, as well as research of Soviet ethnographers Dmitry Olderogge, Nikolay Butinov and Irina Fyodorova.
“That the pre-premiere screening of the film about Easter Island and its rongorongo script was taking place in St. Petersburg is symbolic for several reasons,” said the film’s author, Sergey Brilev. “Firstly, the unique rongorongo tablets are kept in the Kuntskamera, literally next door to the building of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where the screening took place. Secondly, it was from St. Petersburg that expeditions of brave Russian explorers of the New World embarked in different years. And, finally, where else, if not within the walls of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, can we talk about how common scientific, academic and humanitarian goals bring together even the most remote points on the planet,” emphasized the journalist.
“Sergey Brilev’s film, unique in concept, visually striking and fascinating in terms of its storytelling, once again emphasizes the importance and versatility of St. Petersburg science and scholarship,” summarized Vitaly Sergeyev, Chief Academic Secretary of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Corresponding Member of the RAS. “The doors of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences are always open to our friends: We take the pride in the studies of the city’s scientists and scholars, we support their endeavors, and are pleased to have an opportunity to highlight the results of their research through educational films,” Sergeyev added.
