First on the Moon

For viewers unfamiliar with Russian history and realities, this film will primarily be a fictional documentary about a Soviet rocket to the moon; for others, it will be a highly original and subjective reflection of the Soviet 1930s. From this perspective, the film operates more on the level of fantasy, drama, and imagination. The illusion of being a documentary and period accuracy may not be as strong as it could have been, but that might only bother the first type of viewers - the rest will enjoy a plastically and only in the style of sci-fi/fantasy elaborate world of alternative Stalinism. When you watch closely, the film is perhaps even more about the overall space program than the rocket and, above all, about what surrounded it: human destinies against the backdrop of secret actions and NKVD espionage, as well as the tremendous tension and enthusiasm of the generation of that time. The 1930s are portrayed by Fedorchenko as both cruel and touching, with the typically Russian attention to the absurdity of human fate. Secret police officers burning documents of the supposed Russian moon landing that everyone believed did not happen, while it "actually" did occur - what could be more paradoxical? Fedorchenko uses fictional film psychotherapy to come to terms with the trauma of his nation, namely the fact that the immense efforts of the interwar generation were betrayed by the Stalinist system and forgotten. (16/06/2015)