This year's winner of the Sundance World Cinema Documentary prize for Directing, Christian Frei's SPACE TOURISTS made its launch at IDFA in November.
indieWIRE's Brian Brooks profiled the film and the filmmaker at the time:
"Swiss director Christian Frei...had huge bureaucratic hurdles to deal with for his look at the rising number of space tourists who pay millions for the chance to reach orbit via the Russian space agency. Frei takes his camera to remote Kazakhstan where the Soviet Union built its “Star City,” a secretive but once proud town that was the center of the USSR’s thriving space program where the first satellite, Sputnik, launched the space race back in the ‘50s. Though the Russians still use the facilities, its a shell of its former glory when tens of thousands of people lived there and the nation looked with pride on its achievements. Gorbachev pulled the financial plug in the ‘80s. To help defray the costs, the Russian space agency has taken on “space tourists” to accompany their cosmonauts on their missions."
Duane Byrge reviewed the film for The Hollywood Reporter:
"With its nicely languid story loopings, including a team of scrap metal scavengers who retrieve the re-entry detritus for its precious titanium, SPACE TOURISTS is a multi-dimensional glimpse into dreams and obsessions. Filmmaker Frei smartly interweaves the pride that many felt because of the space program's accomplishments while visualizing its down-to-earth, economic failings."
Writing at Identity Theory, Whitney Borup says that the film "reintroduces (us) to the excitement of space travel":
"The film manages to feel both whimsical and realistic as it darts between the stories of (first female space tourist Anousheh) Ansari and the men who harvest scrap metal. At times absurd and at times very beautiful, we root for everyone in the film as they attempt to achieve their dreams. While the narrative gets a little muddled at times when Frei tries to incorporate other aspects of space travel (for example, he follows the X-Prize hopefuls as they try to get to the moon), its tone remains consistent. “Space Tourists” is an informative and hopeful documentary that might make you revert back to your 7-year-old self that dreamed of being an astronaut."
Romain Raynaldy spotlights the film for AGF.
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