Le Grand Voyage cosmique

When the captain of the interplanetary spaceship Astra (Pavel Ivanov) takes sick and is forced to quarantine himself, the three young teenagers, Sveta, Fedya, and Sasha (Ludmila Berlinskaya, Sergey Obrazov, and Igor Sakharov) who had been selected as part of an investigation of the effects of long-term space travel on children, are forced to take control of the ship. This Soviet sci-fi film is aimed at younger audiences as the resourceful youngsters deal with a number of deep-space emergencies with limited assistance from the adults back at the control center. Typical of Soviet science fiction films, the fanciful nature if the story is undercut by a more mundane ending. The special effects are reasonably good and the three young leads seemed fine (I was watching an English sub-titled version). There are some odd but pleasant musical interludes (apparently the soundtrack was popular) and the scenes in which Sveta teaches the boys to dance are charmingly incongruous. A bit slow and not to all tastes but should appeal to anyone interested in Soviet science fiction cinema.

Perhaps if you understand Russian this film makes some degree of sense (I doubt it), but the subtitled English version will leave your head spinning. The plot--as far as I can make out--involves three kids (13 year olds) who are chosen (based on their aptitude) to become junior cosmonauts aboard a spaceship. Their back-stories are quite murky, but what little is shown about their interaction with parents is bizarre.

Before you know it, they're in space and the only adult on board has some unexplained sickness and is quarantined. Of course this leads ground control to make one of the 13 year olds "commander" of the mission, with the other two kids as his crew?!? This is played very straight and melodramatic...the gravity of the position (pun intended) weighs heavily on the kid who is portrayed as a cross between Mr Spock and Stalin.

The film is riddled with flashbacks that make little to no sense...go-kart races, running through fields, etc. The subtitles are so poorly mistranslated that you begin to wonder if they're messing with you (incompetence is the most likely culprit). I've seen plenty of Commie Sci-Fi (both Soviet and East German), but this film stands alone in its abject oddity. It's almost as if they attempted to make a kid's version of Solaris whilst retaining all the dark, bizarre elements but on a limited budget. Oh, and there's dancing. And it is glorious.

In summary, this is a great film that any fan of Psychotronic cinema should seek out. It is not "good" in any sense of the word, but it is really entertaining and fascinating. If nothing else, that such a kid's film exists, is proof-positive of the dystopian nature of Soviet life, art, and entertainment.

The famous Soviet film about space travel of teenagers. «The big space travel» - one of the first experiences of the Soviet cinema in a genre «Space fantasy». «The Big Space Travel» present the first class hits which can be named "eternal". In film sounds tremendous music of composer Alexey Rybnikov. His song "Do you believe me?" was the main hit of the Soviet musical charts for many years. But the main ornament of this film is the young actress Mila Berlinskaya, which became then the well-known pianist. She was only 13 in 1974. Charming young girl, "Lolita" of Soviet cinema. It is impossible to forget her expressive blue eyes! Now she lives in France. I recommend to look this film. Fantastic soviet space saga! Mila Berlinskaya is very beautiful girl with gentle unusual face. The ideal character for Nabokov's Lolita. Really stunning movie.