The first feature film shot in space was released in Russian theatres on Thursday. As Moscow celebrated defeating a rival Hollywood effort amid a standoff with the West.
“The Challenge” is about a surgeon who is sent to the International Space Station (ISS) to save a wounded cosmonaut.
In October 2021, Russia dispatched an actress and a film director to the International Space Station to film scenes.
The Russian team outperformed a Hollywood initiative announced in 2020 by “Mission Impossible” actor Tom Cruise, NASA, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“We are the first to have shot a feature film in orbit, aboard a spacecraft,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said of the film. Once more, the first.”
The Soviet Union pioneered space travel. In between, the film crew’s trip added to Russia’s space industry’s long record of firsts after multiple disappointments, including botched launches.
In “The Challenge,” a surgeon, played by Yulia Peresild, 38, one of Russia’s most attractive actresses. Sent to the ISS to save a cosmonaut injured during a spacewalk.
Klim Shipenko, the 39-year-old director in charge of camera, lighting, and sound, returned with 30 hours of video. 50 minutes of which were used in the final cut.
Peresild and Shipenko trained for four months before venturing into orbit on a Soyuz spacecraft with a cosmonaut.
The scenes shot in the Russian module of the International Space Station. And three Russian cosmonauts stationed there at the time made cameo appearances.
Moreover, the camera followed Peresild as she moved around the confined room, her blonde hair floating in space.
Moreover, the capsule that returned Peresild and Shipenko to Earth was on display in central Moscow ahead of the film’s release.
Tatyana Kulikova, who works in a factory in Ufa, said she was excited to see the film.