Filming
The Russian actress and director have become the first to shoot a movie in space
The Russians have this time won the race to shoot a movie in space. If the 1960s space race between the United States and the then Soviet Union was won by the Americans by putting a man on the moon, another race that has developed in recent months between Russians and Americans for shooting a fictional film in space the Russians just won it. It was Tom Cruise who announced two years ago that he was preparing to shoot a movie in space – which was never heard of again – but with a skillful dribble, the Russians have not only taken the lead, but the director and the leading actress, who has spent a few days on the International Space Station filming a fictional feature film, have already returned to earth.
The film will be titled ‘The Challenge’, it will be directed by Klim Shipenko and starring actress Yulia Peresild. The film, which will also feature scenes on Earth, including those of the team at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, from which the Soyuz rocket was launched a few weeks ago with the filmmakers on board, along with a commander at the controls to dock the ship to the space station, on a journey that barely exceeded three hours. In ‘The Challenge’ the adventure of a surgeon will be narrated who must travel in a hurry and with little preparation to space to operate and try to save the life of a too sick cosmonaut who cannot return to Earth. Both Klim Shipenko and Yulia Peresild have spent several weeks preparing, not rehearsing the film, which too, but learning how to behave in space under zero-gravity conditions. Once at the station, the commander, actress and director have joined the seven astronauts who live in it these days, and who will also have some intervention or cameo in ‘The challenge’.
Klim Shipenko, who is also an actor, has so far directed a dozen films, including ‘Salyut-7: Heroes in space’, the only one of his that was released in Spain, which told the story, based on real events, of the recovery of the Salyut 7 space station, carried out by two Russian cosmonauts in 1985, a film shot in the studio with a wealth of special effects.
Yulia Peresild, an actress remembered for a dramatic film about a couple called ‘Nina’, had to overcome a complicated casting for the character of the doctor. When the search for the protagonist was raised, it did not matter too much that she was not an actress. Women between 25 and 40 years old were sought, who did not require any experience as an actress, although some specificities were required: they had to be of Russian nationality, weigh between 50 and 70 kilos and have a chest circumference of up to 112 centimeters. In addition, they had to be excellent athletes, capable of running a kilometer in three and a half minutes, swimming 800 meters freestyle in 20 minutes and launching from a three-meter springboard with Olympic technique.
Director and actress have spent twelve days on the International Space Station filming the film. This is not the first film to use images from space. In other science fiction documentary images filmed by Russians and Americans from space have been used. In addition, in 2008, Richard Garriott, the first space tourist, had already shot a short documentary short film of seven minutes, and in 1984, another Russian fiction film, ‘Return from orbit’, already included documentary scenes filmed in space.
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