The first feature film shot in space premiered in Russian cinemas on Thursday, as Moscow delighted in beating a rival Hollywood project amid a confrontation with the West over Ukraine.
The Challenge is about a surgeon dispatched to the International Space Station (ISS) to save an injured cosmonaut.
Russia sent an actress and a film director for a 12-day stint on the ISS in October 2021 to film scenes aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The Russian crew beat a Hollywood project an-nounced in 2020 by “Mission Impossible” star Tom Cruise together with Nasa and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
At a Kremlin gala this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded the film. “We are the first to have shot a feature film in orbit, aboard a spacecraft. Once again the first,” he said.
The Soviet Union pioneered space travel — sending the first dog, man and woman into orbit — and the film crew’s mission added to a long list of firsts for Russia’s space industry after several setbacks, in-cluding botched launches.
In The Challenge, a surgeon played by 38-year-old Yulia Peresild — one of Russia’s most glamorous actresses — is sent to the ISS to save a cosmonaut injured during a spacewalk.
Director Klim Shipenko, 39, who was in charge of camera, lighting and sound, brought back 30 hours of footage, 50 minutes of which were used in the final cut.
Peresild and Shipenko underwent training for four months before going to space on a Soyuz spacecraft accompanied by a cosmonaut.
The sequences were shot in the Russian module of the ISS and featured cameo appearances by three Russian cosmonauts stationed there at the time. The camera followed Peresild moving through the cramped space, her blonde hair floating in zero gravity.—APP
