A Soviet Space Odyssey At BFI Southbank

London sci-fi film junkies may think they have died and gone to heaven with the start of the series KOSMOS: A Soviet Space Odyssey, which will run through the summer at the BFI Southbank. The series mixes classic, cult and contemporary Russian and Soviet film with a science fiction theme, some rather obscure and existing only in Russian film archives. KOSMOS includes fantasy films from the silent era, Soviet space dreamscapes from the 1950s and 1960s and the more dystopian sci-fi classics of the 1970s and 1980s, including the films of the genre’s best known filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.  The series also unearths the works of several rather obscure Russian film auteurs of the genre, including visual effects pioneer Pavel Klushantsev, whose films ROAD TO THE STARS (1952) and PLANET OF STORMS (1962) were forerunners and key influences for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  The series will also present several recent films, including FIRST ON THE MOON (2005), DREAMING OF SPACE (2005) and PAPER SOLDIER (2008), which re-evaluate the place of Russia’s legendary space program in the cultural memory. For more information on the films and events, visit: www.bfi.org.uk/kino

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