06-009
Вызов
Just a
bit more than a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, a very special movie
premiered at the State Kremlin Palace in the Moscow Kremlin. The movie is
called Вызов, or The Challenge in English.
Вызов
What
makes the movie so special?
The
Challenge is the world’s first feature-length fiction film
to have scenes shot in space by a professional filmmaker. The premiere date of
the movie was also specially selected, being 12th April, 2023, the World
Cosmonautics Day celebrating the 62nd anniversary of the first human
spaceflight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
Part of the movie was filmed on ISS
I have
heard of this movie before the Russo-Ukrainian War. Back in early October 2021,
“Russians beat Tom Cruise as first to film a movie in space” already became the headline of CNN. Principal photography of the movie began on 5th October,
when the main actress Yulia Peresild and the director Klim Shipenko, accompanied
by cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, flew to the ISS. The mission lasted 11 days, 22
hours and 13 minutes. While on the ISS, Klim Shipenko shot about 30 hours of
material. He also worked as director, art director, makeup artist, and
production designer. The footage shot in space became approximately 35 minutes
of the final runtime of the film.
Is The
Challenge really the first movie in space?
If you
are talking about anything that shot in space ever ending up on the big screen,
the answer is definitely no. Over all these years, we saw at least 5
documentaries being shot in the space and 2 of them were showed on IMAX
theatres. But if talking about feature-length fiction film, then … let us find
out together.
The 1984 Return from Orbit
Back
in the 80s, the Soviet movie Возвращение с орбиты, Return from Orbit in English, featured scenes filmed in
orbit onboard Salyut 7 space station and Soyuz T-9 spacecraft. However, the
film's actors did not travel to space for any filming. All footage were
captured by the Russian cosmonauts. So in general, this movie was not qualified
as “the first movie in space”.
The 2012 Apogee of Fear
In
2012, a short film Apogee of Fear was shot entirely in space by private astronaut Richard Garriott. The
completed film is just over 5 minutes in length. Since Apogee of Fear is not a feature-length
film and it has never reached any big screen, so this also does not count.
The 2016 Yolki 5
But
the 2016 Ёлки 5, or Yolki 5 in English, should count. Yolki 5 is an omnibus comedy film
with 7 segments. Each segment features everyday Russian life. And one of the
segment was filmed by cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Andrey Borisenko on the
ISS. They acted as themselves in the movie. So, why The Challenge is the
world’s first feature-length fiction film but not Yolki 5?
Where
to watch?
Due to
sanction from the West, The Challenge was only premiered in Russia and
some ex-Soviet countries. The movie did not make its way to any Western
cinemas. It is not on Netflix, Disney, Hulu, Prime Video or any major streaming
providers. The Challenge was not showed in the Chinese cinemas also.
Technically, there is no official way to watch this movie outside Russia.
Luckily,
I was given a link to watch the movie. I need to confess. This is not a proper
way. But I am so excited to see the completion of “the first movie in space”
and I desperately wanted to watch. I promise when I find a DVD, I will buy.
Is The
Challenge good?
Warning:
Spoilers ahead
I
think most people know the plotline of the movie without watching. The movie
was completely spoiled by those news articles surrounding it – a cosmonaut was injured
and Yulia Peresild, starring as a surgeon, was sent to the ISS, performed a
surgery in zero gravity, and both of them came back to Earth, save. Mission
completed. Simple and easy. But it is actually more than that.
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC)
The movie gives everyone a tour inside GCTC
The main
storyline of the movie is definitely around the mission – how the cosmonaut was
injured, the decision on sending someone to ISS, the selection and training
part, and finally the mission itself. This took up about 3 quarters of the
movie length. Astronomy enthusiasts must be very excited when watching the
movie. A lot of footages were shot inside the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training
Center (GCTC). You can see many training equipment, such as the neutral
buoyancy pool, the 1:1 ISS training module, and the centrifuge. Instead of
those still photos shared on the official website of GCTC, the movie shows a
more dimensional views of those equipment and also how they actually operate.
A 1:1 ISS training module
Other
interesting part of the movie is the Ilyushin-76 flying laboratory for zero
gravity training. Astronomy enthusiasts must have heard of this plane. But how
it actually works? What does the cabin of the plane look like? And how long can
you experience zero G in each free fall? The Challenge tells you everything
about this.
The Ilyushin-76 flying laboratory
Every free fall of the plane creates a moment of zero gravity
Treasure your moment!
Zero gravity only lasts for 25 seconds in one free fall.
For
sure, the most exciting part of the movie is the space travel. We all know that
the zero G surgery is fake. But the Soyuz spaceflight and ISS are real. At the
end of the movie, there is even a spacewalk. You will find out how small ISS
actually is. It is hard to imagine 13 people squeezing into this small
compartment altogether.
The operation is fake
But the Soyuz MS-19 is real
The ISS is real
And the spacewalk is also real
But apart
from the mission part, the movie also tries to include some romance into the
storyline. Dr. Evgenia Belyaeva, acted by Yulia Peresild, is a widow. Her
daughter is in teenage and has just caused some troubles in school, that needs Evgenia
to do with. Her old mum is living with them, with poor health. And there is
also romance with Dr. Vladislav Nikolaev, a young and handsome doctor that
works together with Evgenia in the same hospital. By adding all these
ingredients to the heroic space mission, the director wants to show that the
protagonist is not a hero. She is just a human that also has similar problems
as we face every day.
Afterall, Dr. Evgenia is just a normal woman
She has a troublesome daughter and a mum to take care
But
the mission part has already occupied 3/4 of the movie. Adding all those
romance lengthened the movie to almost 3 hours long. However, The Challenge
is a standalone installment. Dr. Evgenia is not a Marvel character. No one has
any knowledge of her before watching. The romance part is too short to draw the
audience to get a grasp of her struggle, but too long to bore those astronomy
enthusiasts who only interested in the sci-fi part. If the director can shape the
movie into pure action and cut down the running time to just over 90 minutes, The
Challenger would be perfect.
Nevertheless,
I still recommend this movie to all astronomy enthusiasts, if you have such a
chance. And no matter you like Вызов or not, the movie keeps reminding
its audience one thing – Putin is watching you!
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you
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