salyut 7 movie review

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Russia’s space blockbuster Salyut-7 is a fascinating look at cinematic heroism

The historical drama about a risky 1985 space mission closely resembles american blockbusters, with a few key differences.

By Tasha Robinson

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Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases. This review comes from Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

In its opening moments, the Russian space thriller Salyut-7 feels like an alternate-universe version of Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity . Two cosmonauts on a spacewalk in 1983 joke with a compatriot inside the Salyut 7 space station, theorizing about when the USSR government will want to experiment with sex in space, and how much time they’ll need to (or get to) spend in Earthside training simulators for the project. Then a minor welding accident punctures one cosmonaut’s glove. As her suit pressure rapidly drops, hypoxia threatens, and she becomes less and less cogent, her partner gently talks her through the rescue process. The music, the editing, and the taut, escalating drama of the scene all belie his perfect calm as he persuades her toward safety. Meanwhile, Earth abides below, beautiful but threatening, and dizzyingly far away.

This breathless, intense sequence is just the opening salvo in a high-tech thriller that’s familiar in many respects to American space blockbusters, from fiction like Gravity to historical dramas like Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff . Salyut-7 is also based on real history: it tracks the USSR’s dramatic 1985 mission to reboot and rescue the crippled Salyut 7 space station, after an accident left it unpowered and unresponsive to ground control. The station was empty at the time, which left ground crews with no way of determining how badly it had malfunctioned, or whether it could be repaired. The entire mission relied on a great deal of on-the-fly decision-making as the situation unfolded. And as it plays out in Salyut-7 — amid familiar space movie threats of dwindling supplies, malfunctioning equipment, unforeseen crises, and an uncompromisingly hostile environment — it says some fascinating things about how blockbuster moviemaking works, and how universal certain kinds of heroism are.

Note: the film played at Fantastic Fest with English subtitles, but there is no English-language trailer yet. This Russian-language trailer gives a sense of the film’s scope, visuals, and tone.

What’s the genre?

Blockbuster action drama, in space.

What’s it about?

After that opening sequence, where cosmonaut Vladimir Fyodorov (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) walks his mission partner Svetlana back into the station’s airlock, he sees a bright light he can’t explain. Later, in debriefing, he flatly asks an interrogator, “What if I saw angels?” He’s promptly banned from space for psychological reasons. His grounding puts the Soviet space agency in a bind when Salyut 7 breaks down, and starts tumbling end over end in a gradual orbital decay. Docking with the twirling station without the usual computer-guided assistance is beyond the skill of any cosmonaut still on the roster, and there’s a long, tense lead-up to the point where flight commander Valery (Aleksandr Samoylenko) finally asks Vladimir to return to the program and pilot the Soyuz for a daring salvage-and-rescue mission.

Vladimir and engineer Viktor Alyokhin (Pavel Derevyanko) head into space to rendezvous with Salyut 7, with the understanding that they many not even be able to link up with it, let alone repair it. The mission is a long series of catastrophes and setbacks: dangerously cold temperatures, ice-rimed instrument boards, leaking water, misaligned solar panels, shorted-out boards, a power housing smashed by an asteroid, and on and on. Vladimir and Viktor have a slightly tense dynamic: they’re both practical, level-headed men, used to dealing with potentially lethal problems. But Viktor has an engineer’s calculating, problem-solving mind, and Vladimir is more of a loose-cannon flyboy, who copes with impatience by pushing the safety boundaries. Sometimes they reach points of personal tension that don’t mesh well with their dangerous surroundings and the extremely close working quarters.

And since this is a big blockbuster drama, they both have concerns at home as well. Vladimir’s wife blows up at him when he wants to return to space, and their young daughter clearly doesn’t understand why he has to leave. Viktor’s fragile young wife is pregnant with their first child, and has to be reassured and given false promises after she has terrifying nightmares about his death. Salyut-7 isn’t the most progressive film about women’s roles: the wives are just there to provide tension and pathos, Svetlana (based on Svetlana Savitskaya, the first woman to walk in space) is only around long enough to endanger herself and be rescued, and the one prominent woman on the ground crew is constantly ignored and dismissed. It’s telling, from an emotional-labor standpoint, that she’s the one in charge of the cosmonauts’ health, and that she’s always the one raising red flags and urging caution and a premature end to the mission. Her entire role involves being a drag, while the men valiantly ignore the risks and press forward.

Still, those risks are portrayed in frequently stunning detail. Salyut-7 ’s producers say the film features 40 minutes of footage shot in zero gravity, with 20 minutes shot in space — which they claim as a first for any movie. It’s hard to prove these claims, but they’re certainly believable, given the shots of cosmonauts operating aboard the station, and in EVA sequences. (And what a prospect: a world where it was more cost-effective to shoot in space than to create digital effects of these same sequences.) As much as anything else, Salyut-7 is about spectacle, about one daring hair’s-breadth survival after another, and about how a resourceful, dogged team deals with an escalating series of potentially fatal situations.

What’s it  really  about?

Heroism. American audiences will find Salyut-7 familiar in a lot of ways, based on its story beats and action design, and its idea of how a hero is defined. The protagonists are competent and cool in emergencies. They’re cocky enough to take risks, but rational enough to contain their fears when things get grim. They’re also noticeably the people who choose to put their own lives on the line when things need to be done. The film’s antagonists are the politicians and pencil-pushers who stay safely on Earth, judging how to spin propaganda out of the cosmonauts’ every move.

There’s a distinctly Russian spin to the film’s politics, with an understanding that the government is oppressive, ignorant, image-obsessed, and willing to kill the cosmonauts to protect the space agency’s secrets. The American press also takes on a villain role, with fear-mongering TV commentators questioning whether there are nuclear weapons on Salyut 7, and turning its potential crash-landing into a worldwide crisis. At every step, the film is about how brave men succeed where cowardly, selfish institutions fail.

Is it good?

Like so many blockbusters, it is at times melodramatic and corny. It’s nakedly obvious where it invents fictional incidents, or blows real ones up to outsized proportions. The major roles all share first names with real historical figures (cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh, and flight commander Valery Ryumin), but are given new last names to reflect how fictionalized and dramatized they are. It’s notable that the film doesn’t cover the real-life crew error that caused the Salyut malfunction in the first place, presumably because that works against the narrative that has the courageous space program facing off against an uncaring bureaucracy. The split-second, ultra-dramatic resolutions toward the end feel as contrived and artificial as the end of Argo .

But like Argo , Salyut-7 is an edge-of-the-seat experience even when it veers into obviously exaggerated territory. Vdovichenkov and Derevyanko make for sympathetic figures, carefully balanced between being warm enough to be approachable, and sternly confident enough to be admirable. Valery’s position makes for a series of gripping subplots, as he tries to avoid an international incident and incalculable scientific and military loss, while still keeping his men safe from a government that sees them as disposable. Even when the script (by director Klim Shipenko and co-writers Natalya Merkulova and Aleksey Samolyotov) feels overwritten and overboard, the actors bring a dignity and soulfulness to it that holds the story together.

And that alone gives Salyut-7 a quality not often seen in equivalent American blockbusters. The cosmonauts are in many ways drawn just like American movie heroes: reserved but relatable, jokey but skilled, capable of containing their emotions even when death approaches. But they also have their own distinctly Russian qualities — particularly their resigned world-weariness. Their fatalism says “We’re used to everything falling apart, we just have to contend with it.” And it comes with an inherent understanding that institutions will always fail them, and they’re better off calling the shots, rather than leaving decisions up to their commanders.

With that in mind, it’s fascinating to see how much back talk the cosmonauts give ground control in Salyut-7 . Presented with orders, they largely ignore them and strike out on their own. And Valery and his crew act like this is entirely normal, especially given how often the results pan out successfully. Salyut-7 confirms that there are certain relatively universal aspects to dramatic heroism, but that some of it is culturally specific as well, and the film frequently shows exactly where that line falls.

Characters aside, the movie’s pacing and visual dynamics are both powerful. Shipenko packs the movie with incident, but also allows for downtime where the cosmonauts bond over smuggled vodka, or contemplate the surprising beauty of a space station filled with hanging bubbles of water. This is a frequently gorgeous film, and it gets significant impact from shots like the moment where the Soyuz , atop a column of flame, pierces the cloud layer and reaches for orbit. The vaunted zero-gravity scenes are immersive and seamless, and the action sequences are tight and propulsive. This is a $15 million film that looks like a $150 million film, and for space buffs, it’s a worthwhile experience just for the chance to be there in the station as each new stage of the situation unfolds.

But above all, it’s fascinating to see this story from such a distinctly non-American perspective, from a point of view where Americans are troublemakers who designed the space shuttle specifically to steal Soviet technology, with politics that revolve around frightening the rest of the world, then presenting themselves as the heroes. In one particularly ridiculous yet moving scene, Challenger pulls a flyby on Salyut 7 after an especially tricky repair. The shuttle’s pilots look the cosmonauts over, then acknowledge their bravery and capability with a respectful salute. That’s what this entire film feels like: an overreaching but still enjoyable salute to space heroism, regardless of what culture it comes from.

What should it be rated?

There’s no sex or carnage; it’s a pretty PG adventure story. That said, it’s full of talky sequences, political machinations, and slow, thoughtful moments. Younger kids aren’t likely to have the patience for the slower stuff, and may be frightened by the tense action segments.

How can I actually watch it?

Salyut-7 has been picked up for international release, but currently does not have an American distributor.

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Review: “Salyut 7” is Russia’s “Apollo 13” — With A Geopolitical Twist

This space rescue movie offers gripping suspense…and insight into Russian geopolitics.

By Anthony Kao , 24 Sep 18 04:29 GMT

A damaged spacecraft with valiant crew. A grizzled mission control director. Families waiting nervously Earthside. Sound familiar? No, I’m not talking about Apollo 13 . Rather, I’m describing Salyut 7 , a gripping Russian movie that reinterprets a real 1985 incident for contemporary tastes.

In February 1985, the Soviet Union’s Salyut 7 space station unexpectedly lost power, rendering it useless. To avoid the station’s loss and damage to national prestige, the USSR sent two cosmonauts, Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh , to resurrect Salyut 7 in June 1985 . After performing a highly challenging manual docking maneuver, the two had to contend with freezing cabin temperatures and dwindling water supplies while nursing Salyut 7 back to life.

The film Salyut 7 draws heavily from this incident, but applies significant dramatic license. The movie’s protagonists are Vladimir Fyodorov and Viktor Alyokhin — who share the same first names as the pair who rescued Salyut 7 in real life, but intentionally aren’t portrayed as the same people. In Salyut 7 , Vladimir and Viktor are perfect foils. The former is a swashbuckling pilot, while the latter is a fastidious engineer. This strengthens the film’s narrative, though some of the most cinematically tense moments— like when Vladimir ribs Viktor for “not a cosmonaut, just an engineer in a spacesuit”—would likely never have occurred between real cosmonauts (who all received some degree of flight training).

Space Can’t Escape Geopolitics

What’s more is how Salyut 7 reimagines the original 1985 incident through the lens of contemporary political anxieties. The film raises the stakes of Vladimir and Viktor’s mission by showing how the Americans are launching space shuttle Challenger with an empty cargo bay in an attempt to steal the stricken space station and its sensitive technologies. Our cosmonauts receive word that if they fail to revive Salyut 7, the USSR will shoot the station down to prevent it from falling into American hands. This all makes for a more entertaining movie, but isn’t true to real events. The US never tried to steal Salyut 7 back in 1985, and Challenger never launched in June 1985 concurrently with the Soviet rescue mission, like the film depicts.

Given increasing tensions between the US and Russia lately, it’s not surprising Salyut 7 resorted to America-bashing to score some easy dramatic points. Just like how Apollo 13 celebrates American ingenuity , and the more recent Neil Armstrong biopic The First Man got into hot water for not being patriotic enough, it’s hard to separate space dramas from politics given the Cold War competition that influenced the events depicted in all these movies.

In today’s Russia, nostalgia for the Soviet Union is on the rise. Vladimir Putin himself famously called the Soviet Union’s collapse “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”, and most Russians seemingly agree . Soviet nostalgia isn’t necessarily ideological. Rather, it’s borne out of a more visceral desire for pride, purpose, and security. The USSR was one of the world’s indisputable superpowers, with immense international prestige; its space program was a shining symbol of what the union stood for at its best. By casting America as a bogeyman and implicitly catering to this Soviet nostalgia, Salyut 7 simply piggybacks on Russia’s current efforts to reassert itself as one of the world’s great powers .

This geopolitical current also shapes many of Salyut 7’s minor details, which make it all the more interesting to watch. At multiple points in the movie, Vladimir and Viktor poke fun at Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev through his anti-alcohol policies . Though lauded in the West for bringing down the Iron Curtain, Gorbachev is increasingly reviled back in Russia, especially amongst those who agree with Putin’s assessment that the Soviet Union’s collapse was a disaster. While Salyut 7 ‘s plot doesn’t faithfully follow real events, fans have lauded many aspects of its costumes and set design for their accuracy. From the intricate details of the protagonists’ Soyuz space capsule to their jumpsuits and 1980 Moscow Olympics mascot plush toy, Salyut 7 apparently took great care in crafting an authentic image of an ideal Soviet past.

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> Salyut-7 (2017) Film Review

Reviewed by: Amber Wilkinson

We get so used to the dominance of English-language and, particularly, American cinema in the mainstream that it's easy to forget that it isn't just the language that has the upper hand - but also the stories. Get off the planet and - outside the arena of genre science-fiction - the dominance is even more great. This is one of the reasons why Klim Shipenko's Salyut-7 is such a treat.

Not only does it view an Apollo 13 -style mission from an entirely Russian cosmonaut perspective - even going so far as to briefly feature a couple of US astronauts waving nonchalantly from a distance to the heroes of the drama - Shipenko's film is a match for US output in terms of its look and technical skill.

The plot elements feel familiar - the space station that has lost touch with ground control, the forcibly retired cosmonaut (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), who is called back for one last mission to rescue it, the inexperienced co-pilot (Pavel Derevyanko) who finally gets his shot at going into space because he has the engineering skills to get the station working again. But despite the familiarity, there is a genuine sense of the unknown for non-Russian audiences, who are likely to be unfamiliar with the Salyut-7 story - it must be said that the tale has also been 'beefed' up with some additional incident, although Schipenko says that all the events here occurred in one Soviet mission or another.

It's fascinating to see the usual Ground Control US politics switched out for Russian concerns, including the fear that a foreign power will get hold of the stricken station and, with it, Soviet technology. There's also a real sense of cultural difference in some of the motifs used, such as the recurring appearance of the 1980 Olympic mascot bear Mishka (the action is set in 1985). It's also hard to imagine a US filmmaker having the nerve to include one of the best moments here - the sight of one cosmonaut sparking up a ciggie in space. The cinematography by Sergey Astakhov and Ivan Burlakov, approaches Gravity accomplishment, on a fraction of the budget.

The one element that let's the film down from a non-Russian audience is the constantly surging score, which is the aural equivalent of your gran grabbing your arm at key moments and telling you how you should be feeling. The composer changed around three months before the release of the film and you can't help but wonder if the original choice refused to amp up the music in the way test audiences wanted.

Director: Klim Shipenko

Writer: Aleksey Chupov, Jeffrey Hylton, Natalya Merkulova, Aleksey Samolyotov, Klim Shipenko

Starring: Lyubov Aksyonova, Ilya Andryukov, Pavel Derevyanko, Oksana Fandera, Vasiliy Ignatich, Vitaliy Khaev, Sergey Korenkov, Natalya Kudryashova, Vladimir Matveev, Mariya Mironova, Nikita Panfilov, Leonid Paranin, Stepan Patnikov, Roman Perelygin, Polina Rudenko

Runtime: 111 minutes

Country: Russia

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• News & Features

Movie Review: ‘Salyut 7’ Is Sort of A Mess. You Should Still See It

• June 15, 2018
• Movies and Videos , Russian space program , This Space Available

Salyut 7 bears the name of the Soviet-era, pre-Mir space station that boasted many firsts, including the second woman in space and the first woman to perform an EVA (both records held by Svetlana Savitskaya). Indeed, the film opens with a (partially fictionalized) depiction of her famous spacewalk. However, in the months following this first, Salyut 7 would run into big trouble; ground controllers were unable to communicate with the space station, and it was believed to be irretrievably dead. A great article discussing the actual efforts to save the station, helmed by Soyuz T-13 cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh, is accessible through Sven Grahn’s website . Being fair to the subject, this remains one of the greatest “rescue” stories in spaceflight history. While Skylab was in desperate shape following its May 1973 launch , it wasn’t dead . Dzhanibekov and Savinykh resurrected the station following what seemed like irreversible death – the station was literally frozen upon entry , forcing both cosmonauts to don winter garb.

There are spaceflight-related movies that portray historic events in a manner that elevates the events’ status ( Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff ), and there are some that miss the mark entirely (1974’s fulsome TV movie Houston, We’ve Got A Problem , which was very, very, very loosely based on the events surrounding Apollo 13). The recently-released Russian film, Salyut 7 , is sold as that nation’s equivalent to Apollo 13, but falls somewhere in the middle – at once portraying real-life events with startling accuracy and beauty, but also having moments that are completely over-the-top insane to the point of hilarity. That being said, I loved it. Note: there are spoilers below.

Th e movie’s “Vladimir” comes with a twist. Banned from spaceflight following an unfortunate attack of “seeing angels” during his flight with “Svetlana,” movie Vladimir is stuck on Earth in a modest Soviet-era apartment with his wife and daughter, smoking cigarettes, drinking vodka, and wearing the official uniform of Being Fired, a tank top, all the time.

Enter the plight of a suddenly-dead space station, and one intrepid, slightly physically violent flight director named Valery. Valery just happens to run into Vladimir at a gas station, and somehow after one awkward exchange and a lot of other failed potential mission commanders screwing up in the Soyuz simulator, our hero Vlad is named as the mission commander to save Salyut 7. This comes after a meeting on Earth where Cold War-era concerns about the U.S. sabotaging the space station are discussed, including possible interference by the space shuttle Challenger and an evil, sneaky AF French astronaut who happens to have a lot of knowledge about Salyut 7 (based very loosely on Jean-Loup Chrétien, who flew aboard Salyut 7 in real life).

… But enough of the plot line, because soon it won’t even make sense or really matter. One of the best things about Salyut 7 is its realistic depiction of what the dead space station must have looked like to Dzhanibekov and Savinykh upon first entry: all surfaces are covered in ice and “snow,” and the juxtaposition of the twinkly, icy/wet surfaces against Soviet-era space technology is quite breathtaking. The visual and practical effects are stunning, and Salyut 7 is a beautiful film. Also, as someone who has very little first-hand knowledge of what the Soviet era was like, the film’s depiction of mid-1980s Soviet life is eye-opening.

But back to the good parts: after a completely unbelievable docking sequence, the crew tries to resuscitate the space station, to little effect. I won’t spoil too much of these parts, but at one point it all looks hopeless, and only the crew’s flight engineer is ordered home – dooming our hero Vladimir to certain death. Flight director Valery freaks out to great dramatic effect at this point, throwing a chair through a pane glass window to underscore the fact that THIS SITUATION IS OUT OF CONTROL. At this point, with no f–ks left to give, Vladimir lights up a cigarette inside Salyut 7 pondering nothingness. But have no fear, a life-saving EVA is just around the corner…along with a greeting from an international frienemy you’ll never forget! I ended the movie with a dry mouth and a migraine, wondering WTF happened.

So is Salyut 7 accurate? Well, there are parts that are accurate, and parts that veer very far from what actually happened. But you should still see this movie, even if some parts are slightly messy.

Salyut 7 is currently free on Amazon Prime.

Emily Carney is a writer, space enthusiast, and creator of the This Space Available space blog, published since 2010. In January 2019, Emily’s This Space Available blog was incorporated into the National Space Society’s blog. The content of Emily’s blog can be accessed via the This Space Available blog category .

Note: The views expressed in This Space Available are those of the author and should not be considered as representing the positions or views of the National Space Society.

Emily Carney

6 thoughts on “movie review: ‘salyut 7’ is sort of a mess. you should still see it”.

That fire. Didn’t happen.

Yes, there was an SFOG fire that I know of, aboard MIR but MIR was a later and different space station. As a movie, it’s interesting, but it’s only entertainment. I gave up after the fake fire sequence. Rather disappointed.

“The visual and practical effects are stunning, and Salyut 7 is a beautiful film.” This statement is especially true for the 3D version! It is a high quality 3D conversion and is really stunning. The only way I could get one is to order on eBay directly from Russia. There were no English subtitles, so I had to download some and put them onto the Blu-ray myself. But the result was great, despite the historical inaccuracies.

Great film, and as accurate as Apollo 13

Yes, great entertainment as long as you aren’t looking for documentary level authenticity. Definitely stunning visual effects.

There were surreal (but probably accurate) bits, like seeing the cosmonauts wearing bobblebhats inside the space station.

I liked it. Paused a few times to fact check i.e. fire, but in the whole, a good movie. I loved how they hook on while outside, something that never happens in the latest crop of space movies.

Nice article, about what really happened:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2014/09/the-little-known-soviet-mission-to-rescue-a-dead-space-station/

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Directed by Klim Shipenko

USSR, June 1985. After contact with the Salyut 7 space station is lost, cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh dock with the empty, frozen craft, and bring her back to life. Based on actual events.

Vladimir Vdovichenkov Pavel Derevyanko Aleksandr Samoylenko Vitaliy Khaev Oksana Fandera Lyubov Aksyonova Roman Perelygin Mariya Mironova Aleksandra Serebryakova Yuriy Ignatenko Andrey Polishchuk Natalya Kudryashova Polina Rudenko Aleksandr Ratnikov Oksana Syrtsova Vasily Ignatich Igor Ugolnikov Nikita Panfilov Artur Vakha Kirill Ulyanov Artyom Semakin Aleksandr Vontov Aleksandr Ilin Vladimir Matveev Andrey Tolshin Klim Shipenko Mikhail Sakulin Valeriy Filonov Ekaterina Novikova Show All… Sergey Korenkov Aleksandr Lenin Igor Devlekamov Irina Romasheva Sergey Demidov Konstantin Purusov

Director Director

Klim Shipenko

Producers Producers

Anton Zlatopolskiy Sergei Selyanov Bakur Bakuradze

Writers Writers

Aleksey Samolyotov Klim Shipenko Natalya Merkulova Alexey Chupov Bakur Bakuradze

Editors Editors

Mariya Sergeyenkova Serik Beyseu

Cinematography Cinematography

Kirill Bobrov Sergey Astakhov Ivan Burlakov

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Yuliya Mishkinene Natalya Smirnova

Production Design Production Design

Pavel Novikov Sergey Tyrin

Composers Composers

Ivan Burlyaev Dmitriy Noskov Svyatoslav Kurashov

Sound Sound

Nikita Gankin

Costume Design Costume Design

Nadezhda Vasileva Tatyana Patrakhaltseva Elena Lukyanenko

Vita Aktiva CTB Film Company Lemon Films Studio Globus-film

Releases by Date

12 oct 2017, 22 sep 2017, 01 nov 2017, 05 nov 2017, 07 dec 2017, 11 mar 2018, 08 jun 2018, 23 jan 2018, 17 jan 2020, 12 oct 2022, 03 jan 2018, 05 feb 2022, releases by country.

• Physical sortie DVD
• Theatrical 12
• Digital K12 Cinobo
• Digital PG12
• Premiere 12+
• Theatrical 12+
• TV 12 TV JOJ

South Korea

• Theatrical 7
• Theatrical PG-13

106 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by matt lynch ★★★½

In Soviet Russia, problem has you.

Review by Andreas Bardét ★★★ 4

Wirklich beeindruckende Bilder, hammerharte Typen, nur die zickig-naiven Weiber heulen alle den ganzen Tag 'rum. Aber so war das halt, damals in der (Post-)UDSSR. Lustigerweise dachte ich, dass es sich hier um eine art "Alien"-Klon à la LIFE handeln würde - hätte ich rekapitulierend nichts gegen einzuwenden gehabt. Stilistisch oft irritierend, aber rein handwerklich betrachtet auf Weltklasse-Niveau, das Ganze. Und der Film weiss durchaus, seinen spannenden Momente effektiv auszuspielen.

Review by More_Badass ★★★

Russia’s pretty decent mix of Apollo 13’s space race spectacle, Gravity’s set-pieces, and a dollop of Interstellar’s docking sequence. If you want a cliched and glossy historical space thriller about competent people solving compounding problems through skill and sheer Soviet will, you’ll probably be satisfied by Salyut 7. The movie is slow to start, and overall it’s pretty dry and melodramatic, but once in orbit, the escalating dangers and intense challenges come at a regular clip till the end: nerve-wracking docking, dwindling oxygen, repairs, fire, the whole nine yards. And for the budget equivalent of $13 million, the CGI and station sets (mostly) look excellent, just as long as you’re not expecting Hollywood blockbuster quality.

Review by Nick Langdon ★★★

America's history of spaceflight has been given the red carpet Hollywood treatment over the past half a century, however the Soviet Union's exploits beyond the Kármán line have seen far less exposure on the silver screen. A reminder, for the first decade-odd of space race the USSR was owning the USA: first satellite launched, first man in space, first woman in space, first spacewalk and so on. The fierce competition faded away after the successful Apollo 11 lunar landing killed off the Soviet N-1 moon rocket, although the USSR did launch the first space station with Salyut-1 in 1971, and the county's expertise in these has its legacy in the International Space Station today. Indeed, the Service Module of the…

Review by EudoraFletcher ★★½

A technician and a cosmonaut fly to a broken space station to either repair it or sink it in the ocean. If you are into movies like this, I guess it´s pretty much ok. One watches the two guys working on the station, the plot is pretty predictable. I liked "Spacewalker" much better. Really great is the scene with the cockroach, although in my opinion the potential it had didn´t get used, but maybe the idea was just to show that they are everywhere.

letterboxd.com/eudorafletcher/list/cockroaches/

Review by Robin Moon (fae/faer) ★★★

they changed the names (probably necessary for legal reasons considering how much they fictionalized the events), so u lose a lot of really cool details like cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov having taken his wife's last name.

this was made in modern-day, capitalist Russia, but public opinion towards the Soviet Union is still quite high in Russia so it's not like the movie comes right out & overtly hates on communism. (they want to make money.) at times it seems almost downright positive about it, actually. consider the following exchange between the character based on Dzhanibekov & his wife about what he'd do if he crash-landed in Madagascar:

"i'd tell them stories about space, about stars, about the universe... and a little bit about…

Review by Phillip ★★★★ 2

Vorneweg muss ich zugeben, dass ich ja wenige Filme abseits des US-amerikanischen und zentraleuropäischen Filmmarktes schaue, aber wenn ich mal einen Film aus anderen Gefilden schaue, dann ist es doch meistens ein guter. So ist es auch hier. Bereits vor einigen Wochen bzw. Monaten habe ich zufällig gesehen, dass dieser Film im TV lief, ich ihn aber leider verpasst habe. Da er einige positive Bewertungen bekommen hat und das Thema Raumfahrt sowieso eines meiner liebsten Themen ist, war mein Neugier direkt geweckt. Als ich gesehen habe, dass der Film dazu noch auf einer wahren Begebenheit beruht, habe ich mir direkt die Blu-Ray gekauft und was soll ich sagen, diesen Kauf habe ich auf jeden Fall nicht bereut. Was die Russen…

Review by Brandon Williams ★★★

I only have one question... Was the first astro-cockroach accurately represented in this film?

Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★

Sturdy Russian science fiction procedural on the real life efforts to save an out of control space station on the tail end of Soviet Union. I sometimes wish it was a bit clear in the engineering nuts and bolts, but otherwise this has a nice problem-solving quality to it and the overall narrative trust of two men ressurecting dead technology is strong and director Shipenko is good at playing there efforts against a large sense of futility.

Review by Dabbelju ★★★★ 4

Ich muss gestehen, dass ich vor der Sichtung nichts von den Ereignissen rund um die Salyut-7 wusste, umso gespannter und angespannter verfolgte ich also die fast zwei Stunden dieses packenden Films. Natürlich weichen die Geschehnisse in SALYUT-7 hier und da von den wahren Umständen ab und sind stark dramatisiert…aber Kino darf das! Vor allem wenn dabei so atemberaubende Bilder, tolle Effekte und eine so mitreißende Geschichte rauskommen, die dann auch noch von einem fantastischen Score untermalt werden. Der russische SALYUT-7 gehört zu den besten Weltall-Filmen der letzten Jahre und kann locker mit jeder Hollywood-Produktion mithalten.

Review by Fay ✦ ★★

im sorry i just rlly dont like space movies :/

Review by Natalie

im the little olympic bear dangling from a string

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• Movie - Salyut-7 - 2017

Salyut-7  (2017)  ساليوت 7

• 111 minutes
• Release Date: 5 October 2017 (Russia) (more)

In 1985, cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh undertake the most challenging mission in space exploration, when they attempt to dock the unmanned Soviet space station Salyut 7.

• Klim Shipenko (director)
• Jeffrey Hylton (Writer)
• Natasha Merkulova (Writer)
• Vladimir Vdovichenkov
• Pavel Derevyanko
• Kirill Ulyanov
• Lyubov Aksyonova
• Mariya Mironova
• Oksana Fandera

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In 1985, cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh undertake the most challenging mission in space exploration, when they attempt to dock the unmanned Soviet space ...Read more station Salyut 7.

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Salyut-7 is the true story of the Soviet Space station which began to fall to earth in 1985. If you enjoyed movies like Apollo 13, Gravity and The Martian then you'll love this too.

Salyut 7 is a Russian space exploration film released in 2017. The movie is based on real events that took place in 1985 during the Soviet Union's space program.

It was directed by Klim Shipenko and co-written by Shipenko and Aleksey Chupov.

But what is the movie all about, and is it worth watching?

What is Salyut 7 About?

The year is 1985 and the Soviet Union is engaged in a race with America to see which nation will conquer space first.

The pride of the Russian space programme is the Salyut Station, but on the 11th of February 1985, the station suffered a major system failure and communication blackout, leaving it drifting in space.

The Soviet Union faces a critical situation as they risk losing the station, which is a symbol of their space program's success.

In response to the crisis, the Soviet space agency sends a two-man crew, Viktor Alyokhin (Pavel Derevyanko) and Vladimir Fyodorov (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), on a daring mission to rescue the Salyut 7.

The crew must dock their Soyuz spacecraft with the unmanned station and restore its systems. However, they face numerous challenges and risks, including the fear that the station might collide with Earth or burn up in the atmosphere.

If the Russians cannot regain control of Salyut-7, they risk it crashing into a densely populated part of the planet. Or worse, being captured by the U.S. Space Shuttle during its fall back to Earth.

Is Salyut 7 Worth Watching?

It's worth pointing out that the movie is subtitled. However, don't let that put you off! The dialogue in the film isn't overly clunky.

You won't have to worry about keeping up with the subtitles and simultaneously watching the action. In fact, with its great cast, the Russian language adds a layer of authenticity to the movie.

Made on a shoestring budget ($6m) when compared to Hollywood blockbusters like Gravity ($100m) and Interstellar ($165m), Salyut 7 is an astounding achievement from Director Klim Shipenko .

Along with the main feature, you can also watch a short Russian documentary on making the film. I highly recommend this but don't watch it until you've seen the movie.

Overall, Salyut 7 is a great story that combines elements of drama, action, and historical fiction. It aims to capture the tension and excitement of the real-life events that unfolded during the Salyut 7 mission.

It is an engaging and thrilling film that provides a glimpse into the challenges faced by the Soviet space program during a critical moment in history.

Salyut 7 showcases the human spirit's ability to overcome obstacles and achieve extraordinary feats in the pursuit of scientific advancement.

Is Salyut 7 Based On A True Story?

Yes, Salyut 7 is a space movie based on a true story. The actual events depicted in the movie are inspired by the real-life mission that took place in 1985 involving the Soviet space station Salyut 7.

In June 1985, the Salyut 7 space station experienced a technical malfunction and stopped responding to ground control. If the Soviet Union lost the station it would have been a significant setback for their space program.

Sent on a mission, Cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh dock their Soyuz spacecraft at the unmanned station, reactivate its systems, and bring it back under control.

The cosmonauts successfully carried out the mission, demonstrating exceptional skill, courage, and resourcefulness. They managed to dock with the station, repair its systems, and restore its functionality. The mission was considered a major achievement in space exploration.

How Was Zero Gravity Achieved?

One interesting fact about Salyut 7 is that the production team recreated the zero-gravity environment of space in a unique and innovative way.

Creators didn't rely solely on CGI or wires to simulate weightlessness. Instead, the filmmakers utilised a special aircraft called the Ilyushin Il-76MDK. Fun fact, it's also known as the “Vomit Comet.”

The Ilyushin Il-76MDK is a modified cargo plane that is capable of creating short periods of weightlessness during flight.

The filmmakers collaborated with the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia to use this aircraft for filming. By performing parabolic maneuvers, the plane would enter a state of freefall, creating a few moments of true weightlessness for the actors and the film crew.

This unconventional approach added authenticity to the zero-gravity scenes in the movie.

The cast and crew experienced firsthand what it feels like to float in space. This enabled them to deliver more convincing performances and capture the realism of the cosmonauts' movements and interactions in a weightless environment.

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Salyut-7 (2017) Stream and Watch Online

Watch 'salyut-7' online.

Want to behold the glory that is ' Salyut-7 ' on your TV, phone, or tablet? Searching for a streaming service to buy, rent, download, or watch the Klim Shipenko-directed movie via subscription can be a huge pain, so we here at Moviefone want to take the pressure off. We've listed a number of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription options - along with the availability of 'Salyut-7' on each platform when they are available. Now, before we get into the nitty-gritty of how you can watch 'Salyut-7' right now, here are some specifics about the Vita Aktiva, CTB Film Company, Lemon Films Studio, Globus-film drama flick. Released September 22nd, 2017, 'Salyut-7' stars Vladimir Vdovichenkov , Pavel Derevyanko , Aleksandr Samoylenko , Vitaliy Khaev The PG-13 movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 46 min, and received a user score of 71 (out of 100) on TMDb, which compiled reviews from 440 well-known users. Want to know what the movie's about? Here's the plot: "USSR, June 1985. After contact with the Salyut 7 space station is lost, cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh dock with the empty, frozen craft, and bring her back to life. Based on actual events." 'Salyut-7' is currently available to rent, purchase, or stream via subscription on Pluto TV .

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• Kinorium 7.0 3079
• IMDb 7.2 12 232
• Critics 81% 16

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The idea of the film, based on real events to save the Salyut 7 orbital station, belongs to television journalist Alexei Samoletov, specializing in space issues. According to producer Bakur Bakuradze, the authors of the script relied on the diaries of Viktor Savinykh, that talk in detail about the entire expedition, but "it’s difficult for a person who does not know the subtleties of the space theme to understand all the details. Therefore, some things had to be simplified, and some, on the contrary, strengthened, adapted for our understanding." For these reasons, the names of the main protagonists have been changed.

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But like Argo, Salyut-7 is an edge-of-the-seat experience even when it veers into obviously exaggerated territory.

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USSR, June 1985. After contact with the Salyut 7 space station is lost, cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh dock with the empty, frozen craft, and bring her back to life. Based on actual events.

Klim Shipenko

Director, Writer

Aleksey Samolyotov

Bakur Bakuradze

Natalya Merkulova

Alexey Chupov

Top Billed Cast

Vladimir Vdovichenkov

Vladimir Fyodorov

Pavel Derevyanko

Viktor Alyokhin

Aleksandr Samoylenko

Valeriy Shubin

Vitaliy Khaev

Yuriy Shumakov

Oksana Fandera

Svetlana Lazareva

Lyubov Aksyonova

Liliya Alyokhina

Roman Perelygin

Cosmonaut Plakhov

Mariya Mironova

Nina Fyodorova

Aleksandra Serebryakova

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Review | Salyut 7 film review: Russian space epic is edge-of-the-seat retelling of a mission impossible

In similar gripping vein to Ron Howard’s Apollo 13, this Russian thriller highlights the heroism and desperation of Soviet-era cosmonauts tasked with a first docking of an unmanned object in space

Billed as “a Russian Gravity ”, Klim Shipenko’s Salyut 7 is the thrilling retelling of one of the most technically complicated space missions in human history. When the Soviets lose contact with their orbiting space station, it prompts a never-before-attempted mission to dock with an unmanned object in space.

Unspooling at the height of the cold war, the Soviets not only risk losing a highly advanced piece of technology, should the Salyut 7 come hurtling back to Earth, but also horrific casualties if it crashed in a populated area. Of even greater concern is the loss of face to the Americans, who were hurrying to launch their own Challenger Space Shuttle.

Vladimir Vdovichenkov and Pavel Derevyanko, as the cosmonauts tasked with this mission, strike a perfect balance between granite-faced heroism and fallible desperation, while carrying a playful degree of disdain for their superiors and even each other.

Film review: Life – Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds meet alien in uneven space horror

The film actually shares more in common with Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 , as both champion the humbling resilience of the human spirit, when faced with the failures of our most advanced technological achievements.

Shifting between the smoke-filled offices of Ground Control and the icy confines of the defunct space station, Shipenko has created a claustrophobic and unrelentingly tense experience, further heightened by gorgeous cinematography, strong effects work, and a stirring score that accentuates the overall epic scale.

Salyut 7 opens on March 1

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• Eye for Film Amber Wilkinson It's fascinating to see the usual Ground Control US politics switched out for Russian concerns.
• The Verge Tasha Robinson But like Argo, Salyut-7 is an edge-of-the-seat experience even when it veers into obviously exaggerated territory.
• World Socialist Web Site David Walsh With considerable suspense and excitement, Salyut-7, directed by Kim Shipenko, fictionally depicts the remarkable repair of a Soviet space station in 1985.
• Bay Area Reporter David Lamble A spectacular visual treat, should appeal to fans of "Apollo 13."
• Birth.Movies.Death. Andrew Todd As foreshadowed by a nailbiter of a prologue involving a tiny hole in a spacesuit, almost every one of Salyut-7's episodic problem-solving sequences are grip-your-seat suspenseful.
• Cinema Escapist Anthony Kao This space rescue movie offers gripping suspense...and insight into Russian geopolitics.

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• USSR, June 1985. Based on actual events. After contact with the Salyut 7 space station is lost, cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh dock with the empty, frozen craft, and bring her back to life.
• The year is 1985. The unmanned Soviet space station Salyut 7, which is in low Earth orbit, suddenly stops responding to commands from the Control Center. If the space station - the pride of Soviet space engineering - falls from the sky, not only will it damage the image of the country, it could also be a disaster bringing untold casualties. To investigate the failure and prevent the catastrophe, people must be sent to the station. Yet no one in history has ever attempted to dock an uncontrolled vehicle in space. To this day, this mission is considered to be the most technically challenging in the history of space exploration. — CTB.ru

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USSR, June 1985. After contact with the Salyut 7 space station is lost, cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh dock with the empty, frozen craft, and bring her back to life. Based on actual events.

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