First on the Moon
| First on the Moon | |
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| Directed by | Aleksei Fedorchenko |
| Produced by | Dmitri Vorobyov |
| Written by |
Aleksandr Gonorovskiy Ramil Yamaleyev |
| Starring |
Aleksei Anisimov Viktoriya Ilyinskaya Viktor Kotov Andrei Osipov Anatoli Otradnov Igor Sannikov Aleksei Slavnin Boris Vlasov |
| Music by | Sergei Sidelnikov |
| Cinematography | Anatoliy Lesnikov |
| Edited by | Lyudmila Zalozhneva |
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Release date
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Running time
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75 min. |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian/Spanish |
First on the Moon (Russian: Первые на Луне, Pervye na Lune) is a 2005 Russian mockumentary science fiction film about a fictional 1930s Soviet landing on the Moon. The film, which went on to win many awards, was the debut of the director Aleksei Fedorchenko.
A group of journalists are investigating a highly secret document when they uncover a sensational story: that even before the Second World War, in 1938, the first rocket was made in the USSR and Soviet scientists were planning to send an orbiter to the moon and back. The evidence is convincing; it is clear that in this case, Soviet cosmonauts were first.
The movie follows the selection and training of a small group of cosmonauts. The one who shines above the others (similar to the clear front-runners in the early historical Soviet space program) is Captain Ivan Sergeyevich Kharlamov (possibly a reference to the real-life cosmonaut Valentin Varlamov). He is helped into a space suit and loaded into the capsule, and the rocket lifts off for the Moon—but contact with it is soon lost.
Most of the remainder of the film seems to follow the search for information about what happened next, as the 1930s space program appears to have dissolved immediately after, with no reason given (but presumably as a part of Stalin's purges). It is implied that Kharlamov returned to Earth, but with no fanfare and apparently no assistance from the space program. A number of men are shown as suspected of being Kharlamov—the NKVD seems to be conducting a criminal investigation of the program and it is implied that those involved, including Kharlamov himself, are in hiding.
It seems that the capsule returned to Earth and landed in Chile, and that Kharlamov journeyed to the Soviet Far East by way of Polynesia and China, yet feared capture on his return. His wife apparently covered for him when interrogated as to his whereabouts. Kharlamov is later found on the Mongolian steppes following the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, having suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. After undergoing psychiatric treatment in a sanitorium in Chita, he disappears. His wife later remarries.
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Wikipedia