Bodies that float, cramped spaces, jargon of cosmonauts: the Russian team which shot the first film in history in space had to adapt to the realities discovered “up there”, its director told Tuesday.
Klim Chipenko and Russian actress Yulia Peressild returned to Earth on Sunday after spending 12 days aboard the International Space Station to shoot the first feature film in orbit and get ahead of a US competing project by Tom Cruise.
“The circumstances we discovered in orbit made us change the scenario,” Chipenko said at the team’s first press conference since returning to the blue planet.
“When you are on Earth, you imagine a scene between two characters facing each other. However, up there, one of them is standing vertically and the other is upside down, and the camera floats in its own dimension, ”he explained.
Not even counting the tiny film set, “it was all a real challenge,” added Chipenko, speaking from a cosmonaut readiness center near Moscow, where the crew are getting used to life on Earth again. .
The scenario of the feature film has also evolved thanks to the advice of Russian cosmonauts of the ISS who participated as extras and who adapted the dialogues “to make them more natural”, according to the director.
“The guys discovered in them an acting talent. I made them discover it ”, he assured with a smile.
“Up there, I understood that it would have been a different movie if I had shot it on Earth. In orbit, it is space that commands, ”noted the director.
“Space films must be shot in space,” he concluded.
This Russian feature film, provisionally titled “The Challenge” and whose release date will be announced in early 2022, features a surgeon going aboard the ISS to save the life of a cosmonaut.
“We shot everything we planned,” said Chipenko.
The team recorded almost 30 hours of footage, which will be reduced to around half an hour of film.
Yulia Peressild and Klim Chipenko said they were impressed by the warm atmosphere aboard the ISS, where Western, Russian and Japanese astronauts are currently working.
In orbit, “there is no country, it’s a big international family”, summarized the actress.
She also said she had to secure all of her things, including lipstick and mascara, with adhesive tape.
Medical tools used for filming have often floated freely in weightlessness, according to Youlia Peressild.
“They are so small and fly away so fast,” she said.
“Every second was a discovery,” enthuses the actress.
Youlia Peressild says she “really liked sleeping in space”. “I never thought it was such a pleasure! », She assures. “But I missed coffee and tea.”