''Out of the Present'' is a 1995

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

Andrei Ujică Andrei Ujică (born 1951 in Timișoara, Romania) is a Romanian screenwriter and director. Life and work Ujicǎ studied literature in Timișoara, Bucharest and Heidelberg. He moved to Germany in 1981. In 1990 he began making films. Together wit ...

that deals with the prolonged stay of the Russian cosmonaut

Sergei Krikalev Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev (russian: Сергей Константинович Крикалёв, also transliterated as Sergei Krikalyov; born 27 August 1958) is a Russian mechanical engineer, former cosmonaut and former head of the Yuri Ga ...

space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...

Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

. This was the first time a

35 mm film 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film * 35 mm movie film 35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on f ...

camera was used in space.Andrei Ujică zu seinem Film »Out of the Present«
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Synopsis

The film begins with the May 1991 docking of

Soyuz TM-12 Soyuz TM-12 was the 12th expedition to Mir, and included the first Briton in space,The mission report is available here: http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-tm12.htm Helen Sharman. Crew Mission highlights The Mir crew welcomed aboa ...

at the station. For 92 minutes (the time for one Earth-orbit of the station) the routine of a long-term space station crew is shown, frequently interrupted by panoramic Earth views in addition to observing the day-to-day activities of eating, exercising and conducting experiments in weightlessness. Krikalev was a bystander to the

1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, also known as the August Coup,, "August Putsch". was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Soviet Union's Communist Party to forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was Soviet ...

and the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

during his 10-month stay. The arrival of

Soyuz TM-13 Soyuz TM-13 was the 13th expedition to Mir space station. Lasting from October 1991 to March 1992, the mission included cosmonauts from Austria and the soon-to-be independent region of Kazakhstan, as the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991. ...

is a highlight, while the station was crowded with five cosmonauts for a week. Due to the then-current political situation in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, a Kazakh cosmonaut,

Toktar Aubakirov Toktar Ongarbayuly Aubakirov ( kk, Тоқтар Оңғарбайұлы Әубәкіров (''Toqtar Oñğarbaiūly Äubäkırov''), russian: Токтар Онгарбаевич Аубакиров, born on 27 July 1946) is a retired Kazakh Air ...

, had been selected for this mission. Without long-term training he was unable to relieve Krikalev, who therefore had to stay another six months at the station. Finally, Krikalev is shown back on Earth, resting on a couch after more than 300 days in zero gravity.

Production

The filming was handled mainly by the long-term crews of the Mir. It is said that simply transporting the film camera used up roughly half of the film's budget.

Synopsis

Production

References

External links