The first film shot in space hits theaters

“Here we have also been the first again”said the Russian president proudly, Vladimir Putinat the premiere held at the Kremlin Palace, which coincided on April 12 with the anniversary of the flight of Yuri gagarin (1961), the first cosmonaut in history.

In times of international isolation due to the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, the conquest of space remains one of the greatest prides of the Russians.

FIRST CINEMATIC SPACE ODYSSEY

The film, whose budget was 1,150 million rubles (more than 14,000 million dollars), was shot in October 2021. Then, the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft took off with the director and the protagonist of “The Challenge”, Klim Shipenko and Yulia Peresild, those chosen to complete the odyssey.

During the twelve days he was on the International Space Station (ISS), Shipenko recorded the adventures of Peresild, who was accompanied at all times by the Soyuz commander, Anton Shkaplerov, and the two Russian cosmonauts who were then inhabiting the orbital platform: Oleg Novitski and Piotr Dubrov.

Filming took place in the Russian modules Naúka and Svezdá and other segments of the ISS, an international project safe from the impact of the current antagonism between Russia and the West.

More than half of the film takes place at the station, to which must be added the images of the ascent and descent, while the rest takes place on Earth, where Shipenko received authorization to film at the Baikonur cosmodrome and at the center of training Yuri gagarin.

The project was heavily criticized by Sergei Krikalev, director of the Russian space program, for which he was fired, although he was reinstated after protests by the cosmonauts.

“Our position was twofold. On the one hand, the flight waiting list had to be modified to make room for young cosmonauts. On the other, a wonderful opportunity arose to demonstrate that people from any field can be prepared very quickly in a short period of time to fly into the cosmos,” Novitski said.

A WOMAN, ABSOLUTE LEADING

The star of “The Challenge” is Peresild, the first actress to fly into space after completing three and a half months of grueling training.

She plays a surgeon who is sent to the orbital platform to save the life of one of the cosmonauts who suffered a serious accident during a space walk.

More than 3,000 actresses showed up for the casting, but the protagonist had to finally beat the copper with Svetlana Jodchenkova, perhaps the best-known Russian actress abroad for her roles in Hollywood films such as “The Wolverine” (2013) and “Tinker Taylor”. Soldier Spy” (2011).

At 1.68 meters tall, the actress with Estonian roots took the role because the medical commission ruled out her 1.80-meter opponent.

“The feeling of weightlessness was like being in love for me,” explained Peresild, who is writing a book titled “This is Space, Girl.”

Regarding the film, he admitted that it cannot compete with the special effects of “Avatar”, although he stressed that the viewer “immediately” will appreciate that the images of the ISS are real.

“The Challenge” includes a joke with a portrait of Putin, who has promised the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, money to build a new orbital platform and explore the Moon.

The Soviet Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to travel to space in 1963, while the Iranian-American Anousheh Ansari was the first to reach the ISS as a space tourist in 2006.

BEFORE TOM CRUISE

Russia got ahead of Hollywood, whose plans to shoot a movie in space with the participation of Tom CruiseNASA and the company SpaceX of Elon Musk They were announced in 2020.

The Hollywood movie was expected to be directed by Doug Liman, who has previously worked with Cruise on Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and The Dealer (2017).

The director of the First Channel of Russian television, Konstantin Ernst, producer of the film, together with the Yellow, Black and White company, assured that the project occurred to him in 2000, when Putin came to power, but it could never be carried out. .

“We would have shot in the American segment and we even raised it with NASA. In one of the variants of the script Yulia contacted one of the astronauts. But NASA said no, ”he explained at a press conference.

Ernst announced that the film will also be screened in cinemas in the Ukrainian regions annexed by the Kremlin.