1974 film
Moscow-Cassiopeia (Russian: Москва — Кассиопея, romanized: Moskva-Kassiopeya) is a Soviet comic science fiction film directed by Richard Viktorov [ru] based on a script by Isai Kuznetsov and Avenir Zak [ru]. Followed by Teens in the Universe (second part, 1975).
The film was released in the Soviet cinema on September 23, 1974. Then it was held at the box office in Poland, Germany, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia. The film was first showed on TV on November 7, 1976.
Synopsis
From the depths of the universe Earth can hear the radio signals of intelligent beings from a planet of the star system Shedar in the Cassiopeia constellation. A project is set up, proposed by the young inventor Vitya Sereda, to send a spaceship to reach the planet - but the flight will last for decades, so the crew of the spaceship ЗАРЯ or Zarya (an acronym for Spaceship (zvezdolet) Annihilation Relativistical Nuclear (yaderniy), also meaning "dawn"), is to be recruited from teenage students.
The project is all carefully thought out but student Fyodor Lobanov stows away aboard the starship and unwittingly causes it to transcend the speed of light and so reaching its target 27 years ahead of schedule...
Filming
Initially, there was a single script, without dividing into two films, but when the amount of footage exceeded the standard timekeeping of a Soviet film, permission was obtained from the Goskino USSR to shoot two: "Moscow — Cassiopeia" and "Teens in the Universe".[1] This did not affect the filming process in any way, as a result of which in the second film in some episodes the guys look younger than in the first.[2][3] Cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy was a consultant for the film.
The costumes for the heroes were made of metallized nylon, high boots were equipped with magnetic suction cups, and the astronauts had a sense catcher on their chests that translated from any language of the Universe.[4]
The weightlessness scene was a reference to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and was shot in 4 stages with the participation of Valery Pavlotos, a design engineer at the Yalta Film Studio. The movements of each actor along their own trajectory made a strong impression on the jury of the X "UNIATEC" International competition.[5]
