When a Russian Actress, Director flew to the space station and made a movie...

he 2013 Hollywood film Gravity, which won seven Oscars, was about astronauts who live aboard the International space station and the mortal dangers posed by space debris. While the film is hailed as a cinematic masterpiece that offered a realistic glimpse into life in space, all of it was a result of sophisticated computer-generated imagery or what we commonly call graphics. In 2021, the Russian space agency Roscosmos had facilitated the space travel of popular actress Yulia Pereslid and Producer-Director Klim Shipenko to the International Space Station, where the duo filmed the Russian movie "Vyzov" (English translation: The Challenge) during their 12-day stay, 400 kilometers above the earth's surface.

In October 2021, the actor-director duo flew to space on Russia's Soyuz rocket and capsule, led by veteran Russian astronaut Anton Shkaplerov. Their mission was to film the first-ever feature-length movie in space made by professional movie crew. Produced by Russia's Yellow, Black and White studio and Channel One Russia, in partnership with Roscomos, the movie Vyzov was reportedly aimed at popularizing Russia’s space activities, and glorifying the cosmonaut(astronaut) profession and inspiring future generations. A video capturing and summarizing this unique out-of-the world commercial film project is available on Roscosmos' Youtube page.

The film's plot revolves around a Russian cosmonaut who faces a grave medical emergency while aboard the space station and the challenging mission to save him. The rescue mission involves flying a Russian surgeon to the space station, and to revive the dying cosmonaut.

Actress Yulia Peresild played the role of the surgeon, Zhenya, while Russian three astronauts who were then aboard the space station- Novitskiy, Dubrov and Shkaplerov - also played a part in the film. Producer-Director Shipenko performed all crucial behind-the-scene roles, including director, make-up artist, sound editor and cinematographer. About 40 minutes of the film's165 minutes runtime was filmed aboard the space station by the daring Director who flew up all the way from earth. The remaining parts of the film were shot across various locations in Russia. In total, around 30 hours of 4K quality film footage was shot aboard the space station.

Released in April 2023, the film was reportedly received with great enthusiasm at the box office and raked in a significant amount of money. The total cost of making "The Challenge," has not been released, but it was reported to be at least $11.6 million by Russian media.

Roscosmos promoted the film as a means to demonstrate the rapid training of a crew for spaceflight. it was also an opportunity to attract women towards the country's cosmonaut corps. Actress Yulia Peresild is only the fifth Russian woman to fly into space, and she is one among more than 65 female astronauts worldwide. Russian Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first in woman in space, back in 1963.

How the actress and director were chosen for spaceflight

According to reports, multiple award-winning Russian actor Yulia Pereslid, then aged 37, was chosen from a pool of 3,000 applicants and 20 finalists. Being a professional actor, she had no formal education or real exposure to human spaceflight prior to this film Vyzov.

Klim Shipenko, then aged 38, is a film director, screenwriter, actor and producer. His earlier credits include the 2017 feature film "Salyut 7," which was loosely based on the real 1985 mission to the last of the Soviet Union's Salyut-class space stations. He too did not have any spaceflight experience prior to the film Vyzov. Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, then aged 49, had already logged more than 533 days, and had served on three International Space Station expedition crews in 2012, 2015 and 2018.

A backup crew of three members - actor, director, and cosmonaut were also selected and kept ready, as is common with most space missions.

According to top Roscosmos officials of the time, the film was also an experiment to see if two ordinary people(professional actor and director) can be trained and prepared to undertake a two-week mission to the International Space Station, which is usually the workplace of professional astronauts or scientists-turned-astronauts. The actor-director duo were trained at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center at Star City, Near Moscow. Reports say, the actor and director underwent rigorous training ahead of their spaceflight. The training involved doing centrifuge and vibration stand tests, training flights in zero gravity, and parachute training, among others.

When Tom Cruise wanted to fly to space and film there

For several decades, Hollywood star Tom Cruise, known for his insane and death-defying stunts has enthralled audiences with his action thrillers. In the year 2020, reports said that Tom Cruise was looking to push his limits further and wanted to fly to space and make an action film there, in partnership with NASA and SpaceX. Had that happened, Cruise would have established himself as the first professional actor to film in the microgravity(weightless) environment of space. Some reports claim that Russia's Roscosmos announced the project to film Vyzov, after it emerged that Tom Cruise was working with director Doug Liman to fly to space and film a movie aboard the Space station.

A professional film crew aiming to undertake space travel and accomplishing spaceflight (Vyzov film crew), is an indication of how far humanity has progressed with human spaceflight technology and how techno-commercial advancements have significantly reduced the cost of undertaking human spaceflight.- -either as a tourist or a professional astronaut.