A Cosmonaut and Space Station drama-thriller about what happened in
1985, at the height of the cold war between the Soviet Union and USA,
when the Soviet Space Station Salyut-7 were hit by asteroids (or Earth
orbit garbage) and shutting down all it's functions.
Suddenly turned into a huge piece of metal scrap, weighing 20 tons and
15 x 6 meter big and lying in low orbit something that will crash on
Earth
in about 3 months time. The problem being also that the object could
fall down on USA and with US suspicions of carrying military secrets,
possibly
including nuclear stuff that would cause a nuclear blast and a catastrophe
when hitting ground.
The russian ground control has no contact with or control
of, the station, and if the russians can't do anything the americans
plans to do it, and to
send a Challenger shuttle up there themselves. The soviets would rather
shoot the station down than letting it fall in the americans hands,
but first
they send their own repair crew up there in a Soyuz space craft. Two
men with 5 days to find and repair what's malfunctioning Salyut- 7.
After an incident happening in the intro of the film,
when cosmonaut Vladimir "Volodya" Fedorov (Vladimir Vdovichenkov)
freezes after "seing angels"
or something only he could describe (which he can't) he's taken off
active cosmonaut duty. Something his wife and daughter are thankful
for.
But, the Salyut - 7 is out of control and it's rotating badly in it's
orbit and no-one at the Space centre manages to do the docking in a
simulator, and
only one man could possibly do it .... yes, Volodya Fedorov.
Volodya's family happiness is cut short when he and
master technician Victor "Vitya" Alekhin goes off from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Will Volodya manage to dock with the space station and what will they
find there ? Can they save the station ? The americans think not.
This was great Space entertainment, OK, somewhat sentimental
at the end but still much better than the Hollywood blockbuster "Gravity",
and it looked
just awesome and believable. I don't know anything about space stations
and shuttles but it somehow look "real", no fancy shining
technical stuff just
a well worn space craft. And, during the end credits we get to see footage
of the real cosmonauts that were sent up to repair the Salyut - 7.
The scenes from outside the station with it gliding in orbit over earth
was amazing, so beautiful. Lovely CGI work done.
This alternative market DVD is presented in anamorphic widescreen with
2.0 russian audio and with english subtitles, no extras, region ALL
