Attraction: How was the Tsiolkovsky International Film Festival?

While your humble film editor’s colleagues were relaxing in Moscow at the all-encompassing cosmic premiere of The Challenge with Yulia Peresild, I drove almost 200 kilometers from the capital in search of new films on the most current day of April – Cosmonautics Day.

So, from 12 to 16, the Tsiolkovsky International Festival was held in Kaluga and the region.

The competition program of the festival featured 55 documentaries, feature films and animated films from 18 countries, each worth seeing.

During these five days, they showed projects based on Kir Bulychev’s stories, “Kronos”, “Moon Man” from China, “The Stars Will Lead Me” and many more.

Among them is my personal discovery, which would not have happened without the festival – Dmitry Kiselev’s fantastic drama “Peace”.

Without exaggeration, “What to see?” in these few days it was definitely not worth it for all the participants and guests of Tsiolkovsky. And for those who are still sometimes bored with the big screen, there were always alternatives: excursions, meetings with Leonid Yakubovich, Olga Gromyko and Svetlana Khorkina and other events for every taste. For example, on the eve of the closing of the festival, the Kaluga Puppet Theater even hosted a Space New Year. And what, what is a plus outside the window anyway?

By the way, Tsiolkovsky’s participants also did not go without awards from Kaluga: the Grand Prix of the festival was awarded to the documentary film Soyuz – Apollo. Gravity was dedicated to the reunion of the Soviet and American spacecraft Soyuz-19 and Apollo in near-Earth orbit in July 1975. This event went down in history as the first “space handshake”.

In addition, “The Stars Will Show Me The Way”, “Kronos”, “Freedom Square” and many more films that should definitely not be overlooked by sci-fi lovers were awarded. By the way, see you soon Kaluga!

Tsiolkovsky International Film Festival was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Roskosmos State Authority, the Kaluga Region Government and the Ministry of Culture, the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives, Rossotrudnichestvo, the State Historical Museum. Cosmonautics named after KE Tsiolkovsky, the Russian Planetarium Society and other public and commercial organizations.

Photo: “Vitaly Vereskun”