“The challenge” takes place on the International Space Station (ISS), where a surgeon must save an injured cosmonaut.
Russia sent an actor and a director to the ISS in October 2021 for a shoot spanning twelve days.
The premiere means that the Russian film team had time before the planned Hollywood film with Tom Cruise in the lead role, where both the American space agency Nasa and Elon Musk-owned Space X are partners.
Putin pleased
At a Kremlin gala earlier in April, “The challenge” was praised by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
— We are the first to shoot a film in orbit. Another first, he said.
The Soviet Union pioneered space travel and was the first country to send both a dog, a man and a woman into space. The film crew’s feat is now added to this list after a series of Russian blunders that include failed launches.
Director Klim Shjipenko and actor Julia Peresild practiced for months before being launched in a Soyuz capsule together with a cosmonaut.
30 hours of film
In total, Sjipenko, who was responsible for photography, lighting and sound, recorded 30 hours of film on location, of which 50 minutes were used in the finished film. Three Russian cosmonauts serving on the ISS at the time appear in cameo roles.
Space is one of the few areas where cooperation between the US and Russia and their allies has not been broken as a result of the war of aggression against Ukraine.
According to many experts, the Russian space agency Roscosmos – which co-finances the film – is a shadow of its former self as space research is difficult to conduct in a country subject to severe sanctions.