Earlier this year, IFC Midnight picked up the rights to Egor Abramenko’s stirring feature directorial debut Sputnik. The film was set to have its world premiere in the Midnight section at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, and IFC Midnight will release the film on August 14th, 2020.
The film was written by Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev, and takes place at height of the Cold War when a Soviet spacecraft crash lands after a mission gone awry, leaving the commander as its only survivor.
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Amid Cold War tensions, in 1983 Russia, a terrifying scene is discovered at the crash site of spacecraft Orbit-4. The cosmonaut commander is dead, the flight engineer in a coma, and survivor Konstantin Sergeyevich (Pyotr Fyodorov) has no memory of the accident.
Psychologist Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina) is brought to a secluded government facility to assess Konstantin under the vigilant watch of armed guards. In the process, she learns that Orbit-4 may have carried back an alien parasite that threatens to consume them all.
In a statement IFC Midnight says that “Sputnik bucks the genre tradition of Alien pastiche and delivers something fresh to the interplanetary monster-movie canon. With its massive scale and brutal carnage, this sci-fi gem signals the arrival of a major new voice: first-time Russian director Egor Abramenko.”
The director says that he drew inspiration from the iconic Ridley Scott, to bring his tale of monsters to life. “Alien was always in the DNA of Sputnik. It’s one of my favorite movies and inspired me throughout the whole process of making my movie. Ridley Scott’s classic movie laid the foundation for the whole new genre – SPACE HORROR. I’m a huge fan of those type of movies and always wanted to make one.”
Abramenko also hints that there are two meanings hidden within the title. “The name itself reflects the Space theme and also it has a metaphor inside – someone who accompanies you, your Doppelganger, your inner-self. That’s the real meaning of the word “sputnik” in Russian – companion.”
Check out the trailer for Egor Abramenko’s Sputnik below and the film will open in select theaters, digital platforms, and VOD services on August 14. Be sure to follow ScaryNerd for more of all things horror.
