Out of the Present

This film is very good, and should be widely seen in the United States about the Soviet/Russian Mir program. "Out of the Present" is notable for its historic record, and is a compelling document of the two Russian cosmonauts who circled the globe for more than a year during tumultuous events back home in Moscow.

The film is perfect for educators, historians interested in space programs and society, documentary filmmakers, and others interested in this fascinating but overlooked subject.

The film transfer to DVD is also excellent -- very crisp image display!

Though I already knew that Out of the Present has cult status, I was surprised to recognize how highly estimated this film is within the cinematic world. I'd like to share the comments with you that struck me most and as I think this is worth knowing for everyone who has seen this piece of artwork or – which I really recommend you - has intention to do so.

For example Kees Brienen, a Programme Adviser at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, in an interview mentioned it among the five movies he would take to a lonely island. Marc Caro, famous comic-strip artist and film director, actually says that to him the MIR space station "is Out of the Present, the great documentary by Andrei Ujica." He finds that Sergei Krikalev's stay and his living the "political changes from above there, is an hallucinating issue". While Marina Azcarate talked about the film and its reception when she was a jury member of Cannes Junior in 1997. Not only was she obviously deeply impressed herself by the movie as well as by the encounter with director Andrei Ujica and cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, but she also refers to Tim Burton, who in the same year was member of the main jury in Cannes, calling it simply "great".

These people surely know what they are talking about and their valuing Out of the Present so much is quite an interesting background.

Out of the Present hardly qualifies as a documentary, much less a movie. Its main problem seems to be a severe paucity of raw material. This, however, has been exacerbated with rather inept editing.

Out of the Present touts itself as a movie about Sergei Krikalevs marathon MIR stay during the collapse of the USSR. We don't get a coherent narrative, though. The whole feature is nothing more than disjointed clips from space, Baikonur, Moscow and other places connected with the Soviet space program.

The main selling point of Out of the Present is certainly the clips from life on the MIR. These are unfortunately not as interesting as they could be. Half of them are of a dreadfully crummy TV quality, and the rest, filmed with 35 mm., are often out of focus. They are all short and shot without plan.

It would have been a saving grace of the sparse material if it had been enhanced by an interesting narrative. This is not the case though. There is no interview with Krikalev, no coherent story line. Just various clips, some of them completely useless and drawn out. A typical voice over will be just words like "is there still film in the camera? - yes. - OK." Sub-par computer graphics have been used to morph MIR into the space station from "A Space Odyssey" in a sequence that begs the question "why was it done?". Another sequence is devoted to the rioting in Moscow during the final days of the USSR, shown in amateur video with no narrative to support the images and create a context.

Out of the Present can unfortunately only be qualified as a non-movie. As such, it can only appeal to the most hard-core space buff, who already know much about the Soviet space program and just wants to see a few more images from MIR. This movie could have been much more than it is.