The Challenge (2023 film)

The Challenge (Вызов) is a 2023 Russian space drama film co-written and directed by Klim Shipenko. It is the first professionally made fictional film that has scenes in which professional actors appear shot in space. These took place aboard the International Space Station. The film stars Yulia Peresild as a surgeon sent to space to help an injured cosmonaut. The film's cast also includes Miloš Biković and Vladimir Mashkov. The film crew was accompanied by cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Oleg Novitsky, and Pyotr Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei.

This is the first collaboration between the Russian space corporation Roscosmos and the public broadcaster Channel One, with an approximate budget of around 1.155 billion rubles. It is also the world's first feature-length fiction film to have scenes shot in space by a professional filmmaker. Filming in orbit took place for nearly two weeks, and premiered on the World Cosmonautics Day, the 62nd anniversary of the first human spaceflight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, 12 April 2023, at the State Kremlin Palace in the Moscow Kremlin.

The Challenge was theatrically released in Serbia and Russia on 20 April 2023 by Central Partnership, on an analogue of IMAX called CosMAX.

The film collected more than 1 billion rubles at the box office by the thirteenth day of theatrical showings. It holds the record for the highest-grossing Russian film on its opening day, and it grossed over 2 billion rubles against a production budget of 905 million rubles.

Plot
Cosmonaut Oleg Bogdanov falls under a stream of debris from an emergency satellite during a spacewalk, receives a serious lung injury, and needs urgent medical care. Several ribs are broken, and the right lung is severely deformed and develops purulent inflammation. Doctors on Earth conclude Bogdanov needs surgical intervention; it is impossible to delay the operation too far into the future. Moreover, it will have to be done directly on the International Space Station; otherwise, Bogdanov will almost certainly die from shock during atmospheric re-entry.

Seven candidates volunteer to urgently fly into orbit, all of them quite young but experienced professional thoracic surgeons. Their evaluators gradually eliminate six of them during accelerated training. The seventh, Vladislav Nikolaev, before Mission Director Volin makes a final decision, proposes, in his opinion, a more suitable candidate, Evgenia Belyaeva (an event of which she is unaware). She is selected, much to her surprise. She and Vladislav have a very close friendship but, though Nikolaev is interested, Belyaeva is not open to more.

Belyaeva observes the entire test program at the GCTC in Star City, for roughly two weeks. During that time, her primary focus are the logistics needed to successfully operate, working closely with the astronauts on every aspect in a simulator of the ISS. She observes and is only added late to various training including periods of oxygen starvation in a pressure chamber, 6-g exercises in a centrifuge, and 25-second periods of weightlessness in a custom-built Il-76. Her inclusion is only done as Flight Director Volin becomes more and more aware that she is the most thorough and prepared of them all.

Simultaneously, Belyaeva faces many problems at home. Ten years earlier, she lost her husband in a car accident after speeding through a red light when she was urgently needed at the hospital. She still does not forgive herself, and her intense work schedule means she does not have enough time to raise her teenage daughter Masha; she also needs to take care of her mother, who is very fearful and often forgets to take her medicine on time.

Belyaeva also has only two Soyuz crew members able to assist her: two Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov (a part of the ground training team who will accompany her to orbit) and Pyotr Kudryavtsev (already on the station) and caring as he can for the injured Bogdanov. They will manage to act as efficient assistants during the operation.

Shkaplerov and Belyaeva launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, which hurriedly docks with the ISS. After some initial disorientation, Belyaeva focuses completely when the injured Bogdanov slips into deeper trouble.

Upon beginning the operation, after penetrating Bogdanov's chest cavity, Belyaeva encounters unexpected complications. Blood clots and a non-expandable "crust" have formed over one of Bogdanov's lungs. Mission Control decides to give the order for an emergency descent, gambling that Bogdanov will still have a small chance of surviving. However, Belyaeva protests, citing the Hippocratic Oath as her justification. At first, she is overruled, but after much debate and at the risk of his future standing, Director Volin gives her permission to continue.

However, her attempts to complete the surgery by conventional means are failure. When at its most hopeless, Nikolaev who has remained on Earth after giving up his spot for her but is watching the broadcast operation, suggests an unexpected and risky solution based upon a shared experience with Belyaeva during training. Improvising both surgical tools and techniques, she managed to complete the operation over seven long hours.

Tension mounts as they must wait several days to gauge the success of the operation. Bogdanov eventually revives and, now healthy, heals quickly. Before returning to Earth, the astronauts treat Belyaeva to some zero-g games (many associated with food) and a clandestine spacewalk. During the spacewalk, she symbolically releases her guilt over her part in her husband's death.

Upon her and Bogdanov's safe return, Belyaeva renews her connection to her estranged daughter. Upon meeting Nikolaev at the hospital, she learns that he is the one who told Volin to send Belyaeva in his place as he would pick her first as well. After confessing their mutual love, they kiss. In the final scene, her mother stares in disbelief as she watches a news report about her safe return home.

Cast

 * Yulia Peresild as Evgenia Vladimirovna 'Zhenya' Belyaeva, a thoracic surgeon who is launched on an emergency mission to save the life of an ailing cosmonaut
 * Miloš Biković as Vladislav Nikolaevich Nikolaev, as Doctor Vlad, one of the surgeons selected to be a candidate for the flight
 * Vladimir Mashkov as Constructor Konstantin Volin, a flight director at Mission Control
 * Alexey Grishin as Gennady Simonov, a replacement flight director
 * Andrey Shchepochkin as Valentin Vershinin, chief surgeon at the Medical Simulation Center of the Botkin Hospital, Evgenia Belyaeva and Vladislav Nikolaev's supervisor
 * Aleksandr Baluev as a general manager at the Roscosmos Space Center
 * Igor Gordin as Dmitry, the crew physician
 * Yelena Valyushkina as Galina, Evgenia Belyaeva's mother
 * Aleksandr Samoylenko as Prosecutor Semyonov
 * Alexey Barabash

Cameos
 * Anton Shkaplerov as a Roscosmos cosmonaut
 * Oleg Novitsky as Oleg Bogdanov, the injured cosmonaut
 * Pyotr Dubrov as Pyotr Kudryavtsev, a test cosmonaut on the ISS
 * Anatoly Zabruskov as Anatoly Kochetkov, an instructor in a zero gravity aircraft

Other cast members
 * Maxim Stoyanov as Roman Biker, one of the surgeons selected as a candidate for the flight
 * Benik Arakelyan as Rafik, one of the surgeons selected as a candidate for the flight
 * Arthur Beschastnyy as Vasily 'Vasya', one of the surgeons selected as a candidate for the flight
 * Andrey Kuzichev as Valery 'Valera', one of the surgeons selected as a candidate for the flight
 * Sergey Godin as Pavel, one of the surgeons selected as a candidate for the flight
 * Simon Steinberg as Kirill, one of the surgeons selected as a candidate for the flight
 * Mikhail Troynik as Sergey, Zhenya Belyaeva's husband
 * Varvara Volodina as Masha, Zhenya Belyaeva's daughter
 * Danila Fedyunin as Borya, Masha's boyfriend
 * Sofya Skya as Tatiana 'Tanya', an anesthesiologist
 * Marianna Korobeynikova as Ksenia Bogdanova, wife of cosmonaut Oleg Bogdanov

Background and pre-production
The screening process began on 15 March 2021, as a joint project between Russia's federal space corporation Roscosmos, the state-controlled television network Channel One and production company Yellow, Black and White. The streaming service START took part in partnership with Tinkoff Bank and MegaFon, a company supported by the Cinema Fund Russia. The filming equipment was launched on Progress MS-17 and returned on Soyuz MS-18.

According to Konstantin Ernst, Director General of Channel One, the filmmakers wanted to confirm Russia's leadership in the space sector and restore the prestige of the cosmonaut profession in the eyes of the younger generation (as an example, Yulia Peresild herself did not dream of spaceflight as a child). The unique experience of express training for non-professional flight may subsequently be useful for sending scientists or doctors into space on an urgent basis. The development of the project was covered within the framework of the "Evening Urgant" program, whose members moved to the cosmodrome a week before launch.

About three thousand applications were submitted for the main role, for which Peresild was ultimately chosen. The number of which was reduced to 20–30.

"We selected 20 candidates, and Yulia was not included in this list, because she was filming in another project. As a result, after all the tests of the medical board, all these actresses did not pass the selection. Not because they are ill, but because they are not suitable for flights."

—Konstantin Ernst, at the end of the filming of the series Gloomy River

Aside from Peresild, Ernst offered the role to the Russian singer Polina Gagarina.

On 14 May, the Interagency Committee approved the composition of the ISS main and alternate crews for the period 2021–2023. Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov was chosen to be the ship's commander, while Klim Shipenko and Peresild flew as spaceflight participants. The backup crew was cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, cameraman Alexei Dudin and actress Alyona Mordovina, Mordovina being the first woman to pass the cosmonaut screening since 2012. Due to the allocation of seats on flights to the International Space Station, the flight of the director and actress necessitated rearranging mission lengths of the professional astronauts and cosmonauts, including extending the mission length of the on-orbit crew, U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei and his Russian cosmonaut counterparts, from six months to 1 year.

The crew members began training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center on 24 May. To prepare for filming, Shipenko trained intensively, dropping 15 kg of weight. On 23 July, the prime crew participated in a four-hour simulation inside a Soyuz replica while wearing the Sokol space suit, and on 28 July, the back-up crew completed the same exercise. According to backup commander Artemyev, the performance of the two backup spaceflight participants was outstanding.

The dress rehearsals for the movie took place after the scheduled spaceflight training each day. On 30 July, the spacecraft had its pre-launch preparation started, and on 31 August, the medical committee announced that both the main and reserve crew were healthy for spaceflight.

On 12 September, First Channel aired a reality show called The Challenge: The First in Space, about the specifics of the selection and training of project participants.

In space


Principal photography began on 5 October, when Shkaplerov, Peresild, and Shipenko flew to the ISS aboard the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Soyuz MS-19 manned transport spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. While on the ISS, Klim Shipenko shot about 30 hours of material, and also worked as director, art director, makeup artist, and production designer. Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov appear in the film, with Dubrov and Mark Vande Hei assisting in the production. Shkaplerov will also appear in some scenes.

Of all the footage filmed in space, about 30% was filmed in the Nauka module, another third was filmed in the Zvezda module, and the remaining 30% was shot on the rest of the ISS modules. The footage shot in space became approximately 35 minutes of the final runtime of the film.

They left the ISS on 17 October aboard Soyuz MS-18, with Commander Oleg Novitsky. After the successful landing of Soyuz MS-18, Dmitry Rogozin revealed that Ernst had paid Roscosmos for Shipenko and Peresild's seats.

Post-flight
The ground-based filming started in Moscow and the region of Moscow Oblast in mid-June 2022 and ended in October, with the last footage filmed at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Some of the locations the crew filmed were the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and the Voronovo sanatorium. In addition, a pavilion was erected specifically for the film, imitating the RKA Mission Control Center of the Roscosmos State Corporation. There, Miloš Biković, the star of Klim Shipenko's 2019 film Serf, joined the cast.

Reactions
According to Dmitry Rogozin, the then-head of Roscosmos, the film was an "experiment to see if Roscosmos can prepare two ordinary people to fly in about 3 or 4 months". Filming on the International Space Station was widely criticized by the Russian cosmonauts and space scientists for disrupting the Russian space program and misusing public money.

Sergei Krikalev, director of crewed programs at Roscosmos, reportedly lost his position by speaking out against the project, but was reinstated ten days later following protests from cosmonauts on and off active duty.

Marketing
On New Year's Eve, Channel One released the first musical number, and the first teaser trailer was released on 1 January 2023. The second trailer was released on 7 March 2023.

On 6 April 2023, the premiere took place on Okhotny Ryad Street, under the descent module of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft that was installed near Manezhnaya Square, Moscow.

On 10 April, the Cosmos Pavilion No. 32 at the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy hosted the presentation and cancellation ceremony for a new postage stamp, part of the country's "Modern Russian Cinematography" series, depicting the movie's poster art. The 30-ruble stamp was issued the following Friday to coincide with the film's theatrical release and was accompanied by special postal cancellations at stations in Moscow, Star City and Korolyov in the Moscow Oblast, and elsewhere in Perm, Chelyabinsk and Baikonur.

To minimize competition with other films, foreign films such as The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves were temporarily removed from the cinema schedule during the rental period.

The tagline is "Become a star, by flying to the stars!"

Theatrical
The Challenge was released by Central Partnership, which is part of the Gazprom-Media holding in the Russian Federation. As reported by Vedomosti, Central Partnership has developed a new cinema format that contains technical characteristics similar to IMAX, called CosMAX.

The film had a special screening on 12 April 2023 at a solemn event for politicians dedicated to Cosmonautics Day at the State Kremlin Palace, as well as its world premiere at the Karo 11 October cinema center on New Arbat Avenue in Moscow. The film had its Serbian premiere on 20 April at the Cineplexx Galerija in Belgrade, and it was scheduled to be released theatrically at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation on 20 April 2023.

The Challenge premiered on 2 May in a promotional video showing the cast and crew's impressions of space. They were joined by cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin, Sergey Prokopyev and Andrey Fedyaev, and seven other American and Emirati astronauts, all of whom had seen the film onboard the ISS.

Home media
The Challenge is scheduled to be released on digital rental in Russia on 1 September 2023, at the Start platform.

Reception
The film's advertising budget was 91 million rubles, according to Mediaplus Group Russia. The Challenge was promoted mainly on Channel One, and the state portal Gosuslugi also sent out letters advertising the film.

Box office
Having been released at the same time as the films John Wick: Chapter 4 and To Catch a Killer, in its first weekend, The Challenge took first place at the Russian box office and the CIS countries, earning a total box office revenue of 426 million rubles. In its second weekend, the film again became the leader: as of 3 May 2023, the film's box office receipts reached 1 billion rubles. On 7 August 2023, the film crossed the 2 billion rubles in 15 weeks, which is estimated to be the mark in Russia.

Critical response
In Russian media, reception was mixed, leaning towards positive. Film critics praised the visuals and Peresild's acting, but were divided about the melodramatic parts of the plot, supposed ideology, and how the movie deals with representation of women in space. Some critics took issue with the very idea of a costly space filming, while others praised it as an achievement. The Challenge was praised in reviews by Nezavisimaya Gazeta, KinoPoisk, and Lenta.ru, among others, while reviews in Kommersant and Film.ru were less enthusiastic, and Afisha was sharply critical.

Accolades
During Russia Day festivities in the Grand Kremlin Palace’s St George Hall, President Vladimir Putin, on 12 June 2023, awarded Shipenko and Peresild a state prize in the field of literature and art for the film, though Shipenko could not attend due to work obligations.

In November 2023, the film was recognized as the best project in the nomination of the Event of the Year award by KinoReporter magazine.