Russia is overtaking Hollywood with the first feature film shot in space

“The Challenge” is about a surgeon being sent to the International Space Station (ISS) to rescue an injured astronaut. Russia An actress and filmmaker will spend 12 days on the International Space Station in October 2021 Film scenes aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The Russian crew beat the Hollywood project announced in 2020 “Mission Impossible” star Tom Cruise with NASA And Elon Musk SpaceX. Russian president Russian President Vladimir Putin He praised the film, saying, “We are the first to shoot a feature film in orbit, on a spacecraft. Again a first.”

The Soviet Union was a pioneer space The traveling mission and film crew have been added to a long list of firsts for the Russian space industry after several setbacks, including failed launches. In “Challenge”, a surgeon played by 38-year-old Yulia Peresild – one of Russia’s most glamorous actresses – is sent to iss To save an astronaut injured during a spacewalk.

Director Klim Shipenko, 39, who was responsible for camera, lighting and sound, restored 30 hours of footage, 50 minutes of which was used in the final cut.

“We are Russia”

Peresild and Shipenko underwent four months of training before going into space on the Soyuz spacecraft accompanied by a cosmonaut.

The sequences were filmed in the Russian module of the International Space Station and featured cameo appearances by three Russian cosmonauts stationed there at the time. The camera followed Peresild moving through the confined space, her blonde hair floating in zero gravity.

Prior to the film’s release, the capsule that brought Peresild and Shipenko back to Earth was shown in central Moscow. Tatyana Kulikova, who works at a factory in the city of Ufa, said she was looking forward to seeing the film. “We are Russia, and Russia is always ahead,” the 45-year-old told AFP.

The film was a joint project of the Roscosmos space agency and Russia’s premier television network Channel One, whose head Konstantin Ernst did not hide his joy at winning Hollywood. “We’re all Gravity fans,” Ernest told reporters on Monday, referring to the Hollywood blockbuster starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

“But our shot of the ‘challenge’ in actual weightlessness shows that it was just CGI.” Hollywood Movies, he said, referring to computer-generated images. According to Ernst, the film cost less than 1 billion rubles ($12 million), although the cost of the entire project was not disclosed.

(AFP)