"The Challenge", the first fiction feature film shot in orbit, was released Thursday in theaters in Russia. To shoot the film, Moscow sent an actress and a director into orbit in October 2021.
The project, carried out at a brisk pace to get ahead of a competing US initiative with Tom Cruise, has become an object of pride in Russia, reminiscent of the space competition between Moscow and Washington during the Cold War. The film tells the story of the impossible mission of a surgeon, played by actress Yulia Peressild, sent to the ISS to rescue a cosmonaut injured by debris.