Science fiction gained popularity in the USSR during Nikita Khrushchev’s cultural thaw, but the genre still had to conform to the known laws of science. It was not until the 1970s that time travel appeared in Soviet film, and Richard Viktorov’s sci-fi comedy Moscow-Cassiopeia (1973) was one of the first. Featuring futuristic sets and gadgets, a mischievous stowaway, and even a version of remote learning, the film enforces values such as inventiveness, teamwork, and a positive depiction of science and education as teens board a spaceship for a lifelong mission to the constellation Cassiopeia. In the sequel, Teens in the Universe (1974), the crew reaches a planet taken over by robots that promise an ideal society of “happiness” but deprive its inhabitants of free will—a not so subtle reflection on the Soviet Union’s Stalinist past.
Both films are available on Kanopy, free with a library card. Get immediate access to a LAPL e-card or LA County Library Digital Card.
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Virtual Film Picks are inspired by the in-person Friday Night Films at the Wende program series. This selection is part of a curated list of weekly movie suggestions that can be watched at home, in conjunction with #WendeOnline.
