Synopsis

In the wake of the Cold War, the USSR and the USA fought fiercely for supremacy in 1965. The Soviet Union is on the verge of a historic attempt to send the first human on a spacewalk. However, two weeks before the planned start the test spaceship explodes. Because time is of the essence, the cause of the breakdown is not investigated and the mission is carried out with an enormous risk. Despite all dangers, experienced military aviator Pavel Belyayev and his younger partner Alexey Leonov are prepared to venture into the unknown and to gain heroic status for their nation, but they haven't overcome all hurdles yet: the preceding explosion isn’t their only setback in the course of this mission. Dmitriy Kiselev’s suspense-packed space epic is based on the true story of the “Voskhod 2” (“sunrise”) mission and offers the rare opportunity to see the Cold War and, above all, the cosmic arms race illuminated from the “other side”. In doing so, the Russian director and his crew are able to hold their own against Hollywood’s similarly knit adventure films.