Petlya Oriona

An excellent science-fiction movie from the Soviet era.

The plot is smart and engaging, featuring plenty of unexpected twists and turns. It's basically an alien contact story mixed with an adventure story, with loads of mystery.

The film is beautiful to look at, and the special effects are pretty good. Sure, some of them give off that "classic Doctor Who" vibe, but the non-gravity stuff is pretty effective, as are some enjoyable hallucination sequences.

Soviet SF (and East European movies of that period) are sometimes thought of as little more than heavy handed propaganda pieces. Sure there's some ideology here, but even the most ardent anti-communist is unlikely to be bothered by it. "Science is good, countries should help each other"; it's that kind of stuff. (Even the philosophizing general in the prologue isn't so bad.)

In short, Orion's Loop is smart, atmospheric, it looks great, and it's a darn good piece of science-fiction.

Well worth your time.