Title: First on the Moon AKA: Первые на Луне Year: 2005 Original title: Pervye na Lune Runtime: 1 hour, 12 minutes Country: Russia Language: Spanish | Russian Subtitles: English (.srt) Genre: Science Fiction | Fantasy | Sci-Fi
Director: Aleksei Fedorchenko
Cast Aleksei Anisimov ... Operator of People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs Viktoriya Ilyinskaya ... Nadezhda Svetlaya Viktor Kotov ... Mikhail Roshchin Andrei Osipov ... Fyodor Suprun Anatoli Otradnov ... Khanif Fattakhov in old age Igor Sannikov ... Circus artiste Aleksei Slavnin ... Khanif Fattakhov in young age Boris Vlasov ... Ivan Kharlamov
Plot / Synopsis
In spring 1938 in the mountains in the north of Chile a fiery UFO, later named "Chilean Sphere ", fell down. The investigation of this episode, made by a film crew, has led to a sensational discovery. It appeared that before the Second World War (in the thirties) in the USSR a secret space program had been developed. The Soviet scientists and military authorities managed to launch the first spacecraft 23 years prior to Jury Gagarin's flight! "The First on the Moon" tells about everyday life, heroic deeds and tragedy of the first group of the Soviet cosmonauts. It is the first Russian film shot in a very rare genre 'mockumentary' or 'documentary fiction'.
User Reviews
"Mockumentary" doesn't do this film justice. Apparently the director's label is "documentary fantasy", but "alternative history" works for me. There's some humor here, but it's not a comedy. After all, taking the premise that Stalin had a secret space program in the 30's to its logical conclusion doesn't exactly point to it being a Laff Riot... What you DO have is a fascinating "historical" documentary tracing this secret rocket program of the late 1930's and following the cosmonaut's lives before, during, and after. Much of what would be seen as "fictional recreations" in most documentaries is explained and presented as NKVD surveillance video -- a great conceit. The film includes recreations of newsreels, training films, and also "contemporary" interviews that support a fascinating story. I saw this at the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival, where it sold out both showings. See it if you can!
Additional info
First on the Moon is a 2005 Russian mockumentary about a 1930s Soviet landing on the Moon. The film, which went on to win many awards, was the debut of the director Aleksey Fedorchenko. The film is not related to the actual Soviet Moonshot program.
First on the Moon (2005) Pervye na Lune
