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SFFILM Festival

Salyut-7

Directed by Klim Shipenko

Russia | 119

8 Apr
Sun, Apr 8, 2018 at 4:00 pm PT

Description

When a Russian space station goes mysteriously offline in 1985, it’s up to a forcibly grounded cosmonaut and an engineer who’s never been in space to rescue the unmanned Salyut-7 before the Americans intercept it or blow it up. Facing one-in-a-million odds, the two travelers battle exhaustion, fire, and oxygen depletion in this phenomenally entertaining and dramatic thriller that brings history to life with visual splendor and edge-of-the-seat tension. Winner of Best Film at the Golden Eagle Awards, Russia’s equivalent to the Oscars.

“It’s fascinating to see the usual Ground Control US politics switched out for Russian concerns, including the fear that a foreign power will get hold of the stricken station and, with it, Soviet technology. There’s also a real sense of cultural difference in some of the motifs used, such as the recurring appearance of the 1980 Olympic mascot bear Mishka (the action is set in 1985). It’s also hard to imagine a US filmmaker having the nerve to include one of the best moments here — the sight of one cosmonaut sparking up a ciggie in space. The cinematography by Sergey Astakhov and Ivan Burlakov, approaches Gravity accomplishment, on a fraction of the budget.” – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film

Director Klim Shipenko

Klim Shipenko studied film at California State University, Northridge, before returning to his native Russia to start his career as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and director. He made his feature writing/directing debut with Neproshchennye (2009). Salyut-7, Shipenko’s fifth feature, he relates to his boyhood fascination with “the unsolved mystery of space. [My] imagination was drawing images of what might be there, beyond the black mass. … I remember me and all my friends wanted to be cosmonauts. … I never became a spaceman, but I did make a movie about them.” (CSUN.edu)

Trailer

//player.vimeo.com/video/260317295

Film Details

Language Russian

Year 2017

Runtime 119

Country Russia

Director Klim Shipenko

Producer Bakur Bakuradze, Yuliya Mishkinene, Sergey Selyanov, Anton Zlatopolskiy

Writer Aleksey Chupov, Jeffrey Hylton, Natalya Merkulova, Aleksey Samolyotov, Klim Shipenko

Editor Mariya Sergeenkova

Cinematographer Sergey Astakhov, Ivan Burlakov

Cast Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Pavel Derevyanko