Watch The Incredible Trailer for SPUTNIK – From IFC Films Opening In Theaters and VOD August 14

By Michelle McCue | July 21, 2020

IFC Films has released the brand new trailer for SPUTNIK. Opening in theaters and VOD August 14, take a look below.

Russia, 1983 – Cold War tensions at their peak. A terrifying scene is discovered at the landing site of spacecraft Orbit-4. The commander is dead, the flight engineer in coma. The third crew member, Valery Basov, has survived, but he has lost his memory from the horrific experience and cannot shed light on the cause of the accident. In a secluded government facility, under the vigilant watch of armed guards, psychologist Tatiana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina) must cure the astronaut’s amnesia and unravel the mystery. In the process, she learns that Orbit-4 may have carried back an alien parasite that threatens to consume them all.

Director Egor Abramenko is an established award-winning director of commercials and music videos from Russia. Upon graduation from The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in 2009, he worked extensively as director of music videos and commercials with such brands as Google, BMW, Visa, Samsung, Danone, Budweiser and many others. In 2017, Egor’s sci-fi thriller short film THE PASSENGER – which later inspired his feature debut SPUTNIK – was selected for Fantastic Film Festival.

In SPUTNIK, at the height of the Cold War, a Soviet spacecraft crash lands after a mission gone awry, leaving the commander as its only survivor. After a renowned Russian psychologist is brought in to evaluate the commander’s mental state, it becomes clear that something dangerous may have come back to Earth with him.

The film was shot in Moscow during the winter of 2018-2019. Most scenes were show in the Institute of Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences founded in 1959 and still operational. This unique building designed for multi-functional research projects has become an excellent setting for the film, creating an authentic atmosphere of the Soviet era environment in which the events of Sputnik take place.

The filmmaker answered a few questions prior to the release at Tribeca Film Festival 2020.

What made you want to be a director?

Dinosaurs. When I was a kid I loved all forms of them. Movies weren’t an exception. ‘Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II’ was the first movie I ever watched. Then there was ‘Jurassic Park’. Then I quickly realized that dinosaurs don’t exist anymore and nothing could bring them back to life but cinema. So I decided to become a director. That simple.

How was the idea of Sputnik born?

I love monsters and always wanted to make one of my own. When this idea first came to me 5 years ago, the concept of a space parasite destroying humans seemed quite fresh. Especially there wasn’t such a precedent in Russian movies. And I realized that Soviet Space Era is a great setting for creating monsters.

The story takes place in the early 1980s. You were a little kid back then. Why did you choose that specific time period for your story?

80s is the Golden Era of Sci-Fi movies. I thought it would be a great to unfold our story in that period. I was born in the 80s and raised in the 90s. But all the movies that I was raised on were from the 80s, so you could say I’m pretty familiar with this period.

 What are your top 5 movies?

1.Blade Runner

2.The French Connection

3.Sorcerer

4.Apocalypse Now

5.Jaws

And which Russian films would you recommend the audiences of Sputnik to see?

The Cranes Are Flying by Mikhail Kalatozov

Nine Days in One Year by Mikhail Romm

Ivan’s Childhood by Andrei Tarkovsky

Outskirts (1998) by Pyotr Lutsik