THROUGH THORNS TO THE STARS
The premiere of this unique film project, partially filmed in space, took place on April 12 at two prestigious venues: in the Kremlin Palace, where the country’s political elite watched the film, and in the capital’s Oktyabr cinema, where artistic Moscow came. Moreover, in “October” the film was shown in all 11 halls at once, packed to capacity. Such crowds have not been observed here for a long time.
Many people, including me, were interested in the question: was it worth the film crew risking their lives to fly into space for the sake of “some movie”? Especially if you remember that all the masterpieces of world cinema on this topic (“A Space Odyssey” by Kubrick, “Solaris” by Tarkovsky, “Gravity” by Cuarón, “Interstellar” by Nolan, the “Star Wars” franchise, etc.) were filmed on Earth. Yes, and the director of “The Challenge” Klim Shipenko several years ago made his mark with the film “Salyut 7”, shot in the pavilion, which did not prevent the film from winning a bunch of festival awards, including the “Golden Eagle”.
The answer that I received during the final credits of the film “Challenge” is now clear to me: yes, it was worth it. And the point is not only that the beautiful actress Yulia Peresild, during her pre-flight training, including testing in a centrifuge and in a pressure chamber, acquired a unique experience that cannot be imitated. Not only that Klim Shipenko lost 15 kg for filming in space, but in order to save space in cramped space compartments, he also mastered the profession of operator and production designer, which helped him create a truly original film.
The main thing is that the joint flight of the director and actress allowed them to film 288 hours of unique material in space. And in the end, he helped saturate the “Challenge” with such unique details and details that cannot be invented on earth. Upon returning from the expedition, Klim admitted that space suggested him many directorial decisions. And this is felt, and it imperiously draws our gaze to the screen. We know: everything that happens in the film on a spaceship, despite all its fantastic nature, is real, it’s true. After all, Yulia and Klim were there…
The plot of the film, meanwhile, really smacks of fantasy. Thoracic surgeons do not yet fly into space; they do not perform operations in a state of weightlessness. But the heroine Peresild Zhenya Belyaeva flew there by the will of the film’s authors. I couldn’t help but fly. Because one of the astronauts suffered lung damage during a spacewalk. And the situation on the ISS has become truly critical. It is impossible to return the crew to Earth: the patient will not survive if overloaded during landing. Only surgery can save him.
He will be able to stay on the ISS for two weeks at most. During this time, it is necessary to prepare and send a skilled (and brave!) surgeon into space. From a magnificent seven candidates, space industry leaders (the convincing Alexander Baluev and Vladimir Mashkov) choose the heroine Yulia Peresild. Because in addition to medical experience, excellent health and a fighting spirit, she also has spiritual responsiveness, and this is a significant factor in conditions of weightlessness.
In the film, Zhenya goes through almost the same path that the actress herself went through in preparation for the flight. The best thing about the film is the filming that fascinated me in space locations: in gyms and modules, in the control center with its tense atmosphere and in Baikonur with a rocket taking off and camel caravans on the horizon. And when the heroine ends up on the ISS! With golden hair standing up from weightlessness, flying through the narrow compartments of the ship like a strange bird, the heroine Peresild imperiously draws all the audience’s attention to herself. Even real astronauts pale in comparison. This is understandable: they were not taught to act in films…
In short, everything in the film related to space flight was shot at a creative, technological, and emotional level unprecedented in our cinema. This is a completely international scale and scope, this is the director’s gauntlet from the hand of Klim Shipenko, boldly thrown in the face of Tom Cruise, who, they say, is also going to make a movie in space. Now the Hollywood star will have to make extra efforts to adequately respond to this cinematic challenge.
If Klim Shipenko had limited his film to only the space plot, perhaps his film would have become a real masterpiece. And it would stand on a par with the high classics of the genre. But the director was afraid of such a radical gesture and decided to “insulate” the film with earthly, everyday, family conflicts. And he partially ruined his picture: the unique, singular, piecemeal is sometimes replaced on the screen by the ordinary, familiar, or even downright banal.
Thus, an inarticulate collision with a high school student’s daughter who fell in love with a short boy in dreadlocks turned out to be crumpled and abandoned by the director somewhere halfway through. The boy crawled under the bed, fearing Zhenya had returned from work, and apparently did not crawl out from under it until the end of the film. The question is: was there a boy? And why was he there at all? And the sluggish platonic relationship of Zhenya herself with her long-eyed colleague in love with her (the new sex symbol of our screen Milos Bikovich) is shown in the film insipidly, without sparks of love chemistry, so that one can believe in the flame of mutual feelings that suddenly flared up in the finale.
Full version – in “NE” No. 5, 2023
Photo from the site www. kinopoisk.ru
Yulia Peresild and Milos Bikovich made up a star duet in the film “Challenge”.