The Challenge (2023 movie)

***The Challenge*** () or ***Doctor's House Call*** is a 2023 Russian space docudrama movie by Klim Shipenko. The movie is the first time a professional actor has been filmed in space by a professional director, as other films before were filmed and acted in by astronauts/cosmonauts/space tourists (space tourists that were amateur both in film-making and as astronauts) or used footage from automated equipment. _Apogee of Fear_ was written by a professional scriptwriter, and with some graphics assets done by a professional, but had no other filming professionals involved. and was theatrically released in Russia on 12 April 2023 by Central Partnership.

Two television series accompanied the film: a 10-episode ***The Challenge. First in space*** () detailed the selection of the leading actress and the director/operator who would go to space, in elimination reality-show style, their subsequent training and travel; and ***The Challenge. About the film that conquered space*** () with 8 mini-episodes about making the movie in orbit (and a "zero'th" episode from the premiere).

As the accompanying series stressed, this was a true collaboration between Russian movie and space industries, being not only an entertainment project, but also a leap in methodology for selection and training of cosmonauts that could get ready for flight in under 4 months despite lacking a technical education. This got tested when they had a situation in orbit, where the creative "participants of the flight, not tourists!" performed their right-seat and left-seat activities needed for manual docking to the ISS, assisting the central-seat professional pilot. According to filming plan, over 35 minutes of in-movie footage were shot directly in space (picked from about 70 hours filmed there overall), with just a few exterior shots using CGI.

## Plot

Cosmonaut Ivanov (Oleg Bogdanov in original Russian version) loses consciousness while ISS must perform evasive maneuvers. Doctors decide that it will be necessary to perform heart surgery right in zero gravity. Cardiac surgeon Zhenya, who does not have time to raise her teenage daughter, is planning the operation for her colleagues being tested for the flight, when she herself is suddenly picked.

NOTE: Revise this article against the English version of the film: originally the incident, operation and doctors are about a torn lung.

## Cast

- Yulia Peresild as Evgenia 'Zhenya', a heart surgeon, and female cosmonaut
- Vladimir Mashkov as head of mission control
- Miloš Biković as Vladislav Nikolaev
- Klim Shipenko as a cosmonaut
- Alyona Mordovina as a woman cosmonaut
- Tatyana Dogileva
- Sergey Burunov
- Polina Agureeva
- Oleg Novitsky as Ivanov (the sick astronaut)
- Aleksandr Baluev as head of Roskosmos
- Igor Gordin
- Alexey Barabash

### Cameos

- Anton Shkaplerov
- Pyotr Dubrov
- Mark T. Vande Hei

## Infobox (film)

- **image**: The Challenge 2023 stamp of Russia.jpg
- **caption**: Poster of _The Challenge_ on a 2023 stamp of Russia
- **name**: The Challenge
- **director**: Klim Shipenko
- **editing**: Tim Pavelko
- **distributor**: Central Partnership
- **country**: Russia
- **language**: Russian language, Russian


## Infobox (astronaut)

- **image**: The Challenge (2022 film) cast.jpg
- **caption**: Soyuz MS-19, Cast launched to International Space Station, ISS for the film
- **type**: List of films featuring space stations, A film shot on a space station
- **space time**: (35–40 minutes of production)
- **missions**: Soyuz MS-19/Soyuz MS-18 (Expedition 65)
(Equipment launched on Progress MS-17 and returned on Soyuz MS-18)
- **insignia**: