The main thing you need to know about Sputnik, the first Russian film to have its premiere online

Sputnik is a Russian sci-fi thriller. The protagonist of the film, Soviet cosmonaut Konstantin Veshnyakov, flies into orbit with a partner. They carry out their mission in space, but they cannot safely return to Earth, because something is crashing into their ship. The spacecraft makes an emergency landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan. Only Veshnyakov survives during the fall. He is isolated in the laboratory and, during multiple checks, it is discovered that he did not return from space alone.

1. "Sputnik" entered the program of the Tribeca International Film Festival

At "Satellite»There is a plot with an interesting riddle, cool special effects and no less remarkable acting work. It was conceived as a film for the big screen with distribution not only in Russia. The world premiere of Sputnik was scheduled for April 15 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. But the plans were interrupted by a pandemic. Mass screenings were canceled, the festival was moved online. The Tribeca jury members watched the films announced in the program and handed out awards. Alas, "Sputnik" was not among the prize-winners of the festival.

2. Due to the pandemic, the Russian premiere of Sputnik was postponed only for a week

Show "Sputnik" in Russia should have been just a day later - on April 16. And if we take into account the difference in time zones, then even on the same day. But this did not happen, all for the same reason.

The creators decided not to postpone the thriller premiere until fall-winter or next year, but simply moved it online. The date was moved only by a week: the film was posted on ivi April 23rd.

3. This is the first feature film by Yegor Abramenko

Sputnik's director Yegor Abramenko, although he first took up a feature-length film, is no longer a newcomer to the film and video production industry. He graduated from the directing department of VGIK, for 10 years he shot ads for many famous brands, including MTS, Yandex and MegaFon. He made clips for famous musicians: Timati, Mumiy Troll and Kasta groups.

There is also a feature film in Yegor's creative biography. Abramenko's debut short film "The Collector", released in 2007, was included in the program of the Canadian Short Film Festival and received prizes at the VGIK International Festival.

Another short film, Polaroid Love, presented a year later, also won the VGIK festival, Nevidannoe Kino and Message to Man. Then came the documentary "The Regiment Is Coming" and another short film "Capsule". The last to date short film by Abramenko - "Passenger" - became a turning point in his creative biography.

4. The script was based on the short film "Passenger"

The idea to make a film about an alien who secretly flew to Earth, and about people who are trying to fight him in a confined space, came to Abramenko about five years ago. The director came to the producer Ilya Stewart with a proposal to make a "Russian" Alien ". He approved the idea.

Abramenko did not want to take on the full meter right away: it was important for him to check on a real audience how interesting the story and concept were. This is how the short film Passenger appeared in 2017.

The main character of the picture is an astronaut who, after an emergency landing, finds himself in the taiga for as much as 36 hours. After that, people begin to disappear around him, and he decides to isolate himself in his own apartment. “The Passenger” is a chamber film: there is one actor - Artur Smolyaninov and only one location - an apartment.

"Passenger" was included in the program of the "Kinotavr" festival, where he was well received by the audience and critics. After that Abramenko realized that he was ready for a full-length work.

5. The film is set in the USSR

Time of events in "Sputnik" - 1983. The team of the film approached the creation of the atmosphere of the USSR seriously. We searched for a film set for a long time, examined many Soviet buildings in St. Petersburg and Moscow. As a result, we settled on the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, founded in 1959. Soviet floor and wall decoration, furniture, and carpet have been preserved there. Even CCTV cameras are from the eighties.

A collector of Soviet electronic equipment helped with the decorations for the laboratory. The interiors were carefully thought out by production designer Maria Slavina and director of photography Maxim Zhukov. They revisited many Soviet films of those times in order to accurately convey the atmosphere of the eighties.

The creators were just as sensitive to the interior and exterior of the spacecraft, even though it is in the frame for only 10 minutes.

An important element in Sputnik is costumes. Some of them were historically accurate, for example, the space suits of the cosmonauts are copies of the Sokol-KV2 rescue space suits from the Soyuz spacecraft. The rest of the costumes are fictional - for example, the military uniform was invented from scratch by the task of the costume designer Ulyana Polyanskaya.

Unreal elements were added to the film specifically to show that although the action of the picture takes place in the past, it is not historical.

6. The film is inspired by Alien, but does not copy it

The fact that Abramenko's film is inspired by Ridley Scott's cult "Alien" can be seen with the naked eye. The creators do not hide this.

The important thing is that Sputnik is not a copy of Alien. The films are similar in only two things: they have an alien living inside a person, and the main character is a strong, strong-willed woman. The rest of the pictures are different. The main difference between them is the main conflict. Abramenko did not want to create a story "man against space" or "man against another species." The director decided to show an internal conflict: "a man against himself." The filmmakers say that in this sense, "Sputnik" is more logical to compare with "Isle of the Damned" by Martin Scorsese.

7. The image of the alien was created by cool animators

The alien in "Sputnik" looks like a large lizard with long limbs and a tail, a small muzzle with black round eyes and a hood like a cobra. Outwardly, it looks quite harmless and even cute. But don't let the image confuse you: aliens can kill a person in a matter of minutes.

The image of the "Russian xenomorph" was created by the Main Road Post company. She hitTop 100 Most Influential Animation Studios in the top 100 most influential animation studios of all time. In the past, its specialists have worked on special effects for "Attraction", "Invasion", "Stalingrad".

8. Oksana Akinshina, Pyotr Fyodorov and Fyodor Bondarchuk played the main roles in the film

Producers were looking for eminent actors purposefully: such a large-scale film needed stars to maximize the story and attract viewers.

There are three key characters in Sputnik. The first is cosmonaut Konstantin Veshnyakov. Hero of the Soviet Union, who does not always act heroically in life. He returned from a flight into space and immediately went to the laboratory. Why he is being kept there, the astronaut does not know.

The producers decided to invite Pyotr Fedorov for this role almost immediately. The actor doubted at first, but still agreed.

The second key character is the neurophysiologist Tatyana Klimova. A strong-willed woman with a difficult fate and love for her work. She is not afraid to take risks and apply experimental methods. She is called to the laboratory to help find out what is happening with the astronaut Veshnyakov.

Finding an actress for this role, according to the producers, was not easy, but not because there were no applicants. On the contrary, there were many candidates. As a result, the creators settled on Oksana Akinshina. The actress, already at the casting, was able to feel and show the complex and ambiguous character of Klimova.

To play in the film, Akinshina learned a few phrases in Latin and learned to drive an UAZ, although in life she drives an automatic car.

The third important character in Sputnik is Colonel Semiradov, who is also the head of the laboratory where Veshnyakov is kept. Emotional, strict, with principles. This character is played by Fyodor Bondarchuk, he is also the producer of Sputnik. The performer himself says that his role is a gift for the actor, because there is something to play there.

9. Sputnik showed the best start at ivi in ​​a year

Ivi analyzed all subscription movies released between April 2019 and April 2020 and checked how many viewers each had watched in the first five days after release.

"Sputnik" bypassed five timesThe movie "Sputnik" is well watched online by views of "The Lion King" and "Aladdin", three times - "Marathon of Desires", 10 times - "John Wick - 3". Also, Russian sci-fi left behind the films "Avengers: Endgame", "Aquaman" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi".