Space in the feminine
Russian and U.S. film industries recently got involved in a rivalry regarding the release of a film, several scenes of which were filmed in the International Space Station (ISS). Even if the ISS has often served as a model for various film scripts since its putting into orbit in 1998, this is the first time that the film crews had the privilege of going inside one of the modules to film in zero gravity conditions. Alongside space tourism, which has become accessible for the ultra-rich of our planet, mainstream cinema will soon provide film enthusiasts with the opportunity of seeing their stars strut their stuff in an unprecedented décor located about 400 km above our heads.
On the Russian side, the film’s leading role was entrusted to Yuliya Peresild, while for the Americans, Tom Cruise was the star of choice. Having gotten ahead of the American production by several days and favoured a woman in the leading role, the Russians in a sense commemorated Valentina Tereshkova’s exploit, the first woman astronaut to have orbited the Earth, in 1963, aboard the spaceship Vostok 6. After this low orbit flight, carried out two years after Yuri Gagarin’s feat, Tereshkova was to become the standard bearer of the Soviet regime and the symbol of woman’s liberation in the socialist world. The rivalry with the U.S., characterized by the term “cold war,” was thus equally transposed onto the field of the Soviet regime’s superiority regarding the emancipation of women, the
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