The 1985 absurdist fantasy Elektronnaya babushka is one of the most interesting attempts to transform Ray Bradbury’s prose to film. I was able to get very good Russian to English captions on YouTube while hearing the original dialogue.

First of all, the Internet Movie Database description is WRONG. That is the description of a film adaptation of Bradbury’s story “I Sing the Body Electric!,” originally published in 1969 as “The Beautiful One is Here” and otherwise known as “The Electric Grandmother,” of which a faithful film adaptation does exist. This film is NOT THAT.

Readers familiar with Bradbury’s work may be forgiven for being confused when the first scene opens on a beach with children conversing in dialogue from Bradbury’s historical novel Dandelion Wine. The action continues with bizarre absurdist touches such as people dressed in old-fashioned clothing in one scene and modern clothing in the next. The old-fashioned clothing appears to be late 1800s-early 1900s, before Dandelion Wine’s setting of 1928. Some scenes from Dandelion Wine such as the carpet beating are enacted while at the same time people casually discuss booking trips to the moon like that’s a thing.

The central character, a girl of about ten named Agatha, played by Inna Rosenaite, and her mother, played by Violeta Podolskaite, especially pull the old fashion switch, while her father, played by Vidas Petkevic̆ius, seems to pretty well maintain 1928 fashion. Perhaps they had only one wardrobe for him.

In the original story, Agatha was one of three children whose mother had recently died. Their father was persuaded to buy an electric grandmother with the capacity to love them. In the movie, quite the opposite. Agatha is a spoiled only child who has both parents in sound health who are capable of taking care of her, but she never had a grandmother. Unlike in the story, in which Agatha violently resists an electrical grandmother, in the movie Agatha’s intense longing for a grandmother causes her to sicken until her health is despaired of. Her bed is placed in the garden, like Douglas Spaulding’s in the story “Green Wine for Dreaming” in Dandelion Wine.

This movie turns other Bradbury stories on their heads. For instance, in this version of the story “Season of Disbelief,” the parts played by girls in the story are taken by boys, while Agatha takes the role of Tom Spaulding in the story.

Agatha’s friend Antas, played by Darius Palekas, is so concerned for her health that he appeals to his grandmother, who lives in a remote dwelling and practices herbal magic. His grandmother does not want Antas to leave and offers to make him invisible, resulting in a fairly accurate rendering of the Bradbury story “Invisible Boy,” with the exception of course of the scene in which the boy decides to take his clothes off. This was, after all, filmed in Russia in the winter. Another of the absurd or surreal touches in the film is the seasons change a lot, from summer when Agatha goes to bed in the garden, to winter when Antas visits his grandmother, or maybe the grandmother just lived in Siberia.

At last an electric grandmother, played by Ingeborga Dapkunaite, arrives. She is so much like the movie version of Mary Poppins that Agatha remarks on the resemblance. Grandmother takes family and friends on an excursion in a version of the Bradbury story “The Rocket.” When Agatha has a change of heart she learns that a robot can need a person as much as a person needs a robot.

Watching this movie I kept feeling I was seeing Alice in Wonderland taking a surreal trip into Magical Mystery Tour without all the great music. Agatha’s mother’s chickens lay eggs larger than actual chickens, and a marching band appears on the street at random, besides the rapid fashion changes. Periodically action cuts back to the beach of the beginning, and to advertisements for an electrical grandmother.

There is no real objectionable material except possible vandalism to a large white fence, and I say possible because in this mishmosh it is impossible to tell damage from intended art.

This film is oddly entertaining but not for people who expect Bradbury’s work to be followed exactly. The main characters are children, it is quirky, and kids may like it.