Watch The Trailer For First Feature Film Shot In Space… Brought To You By Russia

A handful of filming locations have been described as “out of this world”—from the backdrops of The Lord of the Rings to those of Game of Thrones and Harry Potter—but this place takes that notion to astronomical heights.

Russia has released the trailer for the first feature movie ever filmed in space. The Challenge follows a thoracic surgeon named Zhenya (played by Yulia Peresild), who jets off to zero gravity to perform a complicated heart surgery on a cosmonaut (played by real-life cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy), who is unfit to return to Earth to get treated.

Besides having to make this unprecedented journey, Zhenya has to deal with discrimination by male astronauts for the fact that she is a woman.

The Challenge, shot partially aboard the International Space Station (ISS)—about 250 miles above Earth’s surface—was directed by filmmaker Klim Shipenko, and produced by the Yellow, Black and White Studio as well as state-controlled television network Channel One Russia, with help from Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Peresild had to prove her suitability for the role, which involved enduring the unusually harsh conditions in space, through medical, psychological, and physical tests.

Filming on the ISS began in October 2021, a few months before Russia invaded Ukraine, and took 12 days.

The Challenge is set to rocket into theaters on April 12. Next to moonwalk, kind of, might be Tom Cruise, who hopes to be the first person to perform a civilian spacewalk for a forthcoming movie.

[via PetaPixel and Euronews, video and screenshots via Central Partnership]