Soviet Science Fiction season at the British Film Institute

The British Film Institute in London is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic flight with KOSMOS, a season of films dedicated to Soviet sci-fi.

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Part two of KINO will be presented in conjunction with the 50th anniversary celebrations of Yuri Gagarin's momentous journey into space. KOSMOS will provide an introduction to Russian and Soviet science fiction from the periods leading up to and after Gagarin's expedition as the first human to orbit space. The season will offer rarely seen films and key documentaries in a programme that explores the impact of the Soviet space dream on the cinema from the 1950s and 60s, through the more dystopian 1970s and 80s and on to the present day.

The elaborate celebrations that greeted Gagarin upon his return to earth reflected the swell of national pride. Some of the most fascinating footage, such as Peleshian's Our Century (1982), will feature alongside stunning visions of man's voyage to outer space in 1950s films, created by Russian visual-effects pioneers, notably Pavel Klushantsev with Road to the Stars (1952) and the kitsch Planet of Storms (pictured above, 1962). Kurt Maetzig's classic The Silent Star (1958) was adapted from a novel by Stanislaw Lem and follows an international expedition to Venus, set in 1985, whilst in Icarus XB1 (1963), by Jindrich Polák, cosmonauts, who dress in black-tie for cocktail parties, search for life on distant planets. The season would not be complete without both Solaris (1972) and Stalker (1979) by Andrei Tarkovsky, probably the best known titles in the West from this period. 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of Stanislaw Lem's original novel Solaris upon which the film is based.

KOSMOS blasts off in July, full details and ticket bookings at the BFI website.