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Russian space drama ‘Challenge’ to be released on April 20

"Challenge" is the first feature film to be shot in outer space on board the International Space Station

MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/. Klim Shipenko’s movie drama, "Challenge," partially shot in outer space, will premiere on April 12, and will be released to the public on April 20, the press service of Channel One confirmed to TASS on Monday.

Earlier, the new date for the box office debut appeared on the premiere schedule of the Kinopoisk movie service.

"Challenge" is the first feature film to be shot in outer space on board the International Space Station (ISS). The space drama is a joint project of Channel One, Roscosmos State Corporation, its subsidiary Glavkosmos, Yellow, Black and White studio, START online cinema, with the support of Cinema Fund (Federal fund for economic and social support of Russian cinematography). Earlier, Kaluga Region Governor Vladislav Shapsha said that the movie drama will open the film festival "Tsiolkovsky", which will be held in Kaluga from April 12 to 16.

According to the plot, a female doctor has to prepare for a space flight within a month owing to some specific circumstances and travel to the orbital outpost to save a cosmonaut’s life. On October 5, 2021, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko lifted off aboard a Soyuz MS-19 manned spacecraft to the International Space Station to shoot the film. Cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, who worked aboard the orbital outpost at that time, also took part in the film’s shooting.

Novitsky, Peresild and Shipenko returned to Earth aboard the Yuri Gagarin descent capsule of a Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on October 17, 2021. Shkaplerov and Dubrov returned to Earth from the space station on March 30, 2022. Serbian and Russian actor Milos Bikovic and Russian Vladimir Mashkov will also appear in the film.

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