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 astronautFictional ill astronaut is Ivanov so Novitsky may be the sick astronaut)
 Aleksandr Baluev as head of Roskosmos
 Igor Gordin
 Alexey Barabash

Cameos
 Anton Shkaplerov
 Pyotr Dubrov
 Mark T. Vande Hei

References

 Other websites 


Category:2023 drama movies
Category:Movies about astronauts
Category:Movies set in the 2020s
Category:Russian drama movies
Category:Russian-language movies