Timur Timerkaev

A film about Pavel Klushantsev (1910–1999), an outstanding Soviet director at the Lennauchfilm studio and creator of popular science films about space, who foresaw advancements in space exploration decades ahead. Drawing on unique documentary footage, the film traces Klushantsev’s life story. He endured revolutions, wars, professional triumphs, and dismissal from his beloved work, yet never lost faith in humanity’s boundless potential to build a better world.

August 1960. Director Nikolai Berentsev is working on a large-scale science fiction film about an expedition to Venus. The construction of grandiose decorations begins in the pavilion. Berentsev himself develops models of planets and spacecraft, comes up with special devices for combined filming. He tries to imagine and visualize something that no one has ever seen — life on other planets. He believes that fantasy should run ahead of science, but faces skepticism from colleagues and the scientific community. In the end, he himself begins to doubt whether his film is needed by the audience, why these dreams of Space, when there are so many unresolved problems on Earth.