It is not the first time that cinematographers have turned to the story of the difficult life of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, the founder of the theory of rocket flights and space travel, and it would seem that all the twists and turns, traits and hopes of the "celestial artisan" have already been told. Yet, his unique destiny always attracts attention, just because it continues to inspire people!
Among those inspired is the team of the TSIOLKOVSKY International Space Film Festival. We are glad that the film mentions our young festival, which opens annually on Cosmonautics Day, April 12, in the city of Kaluga, where Konstantin Eduardovich lived and worked for many years.
Right, Kaluga is that very modest and kind Russian province from which Tsiolkovsky paved the way to space for all mankind. Once upon a time, along these quiet streets, a brilliant self-taught researcher rode a bicycle past board fences and private houses to a local gymnasium to teach physics to children. For the remaining time, he was thinking about the deep questions of the universe. He was interested in a variety of issues of natural science and technology, aviation and aeronautics, celestial mechanics, astronomy, linguistics and philosophy. Many ordinary people considered him eccentric, not suspecting that they lived next to an encyclopedic scientist who could radically change the history of mankind. In a wooden house with a well in the courtyard, Tsiolkovsky then constructed a "flying mongofier" made from tissue paper, wrote another theoretical work "Monism of the Universe", built an all-metal airship and kept asking himself if it was possible to use centrifugal force to rise beyond the atmosphere... A rare sense of purpose helped Tsiolkovsky not to give up, not to abandon his innovative ideas in both tsarist and Soviet Russia, when contemporaries simply were not ready to accept them.
The film also tells an interesting episode of the creative activity of the great scientist, when he wrote the screenplay of the feature film "Space Flight" on his own. The Soviet science fiction film was shot in 1935 at the Mosfilm film studio directed by Vasily Zhuravlev, with engineering specialists involved. Of course, at that time there was simply no technical equipment in film production to create the effect of weightlessness and passing by the star placer of the first interplanetary ship. They had to fantasize! In some incomprehensible way, the illusion of flight was organized against the background of black velvet "depicting" distant outer space conquered by brave starfarers… The premiere took place on January 21, 1936 at the Cinema House. "Space Flight" is recognized as one of the most outstanding science fiction films of the silent film era and is dedicated to the memory of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who passed away in 1935.
The founder of theoretical cosmonautics worked on the creation of a jet engine for 40 years and predicted many technical methods that were confirmed in practice decades later, for example, the desirable splashdown of an aircraft returning from the flight.
Yuri Gagarin told reporters after his landing that the factors described in Tsiolkovsky's books do not differ from what he saw in space!
It was Gagarin who laid the foundation stone of the The Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga. For cosmonauts, this is a special place on Earth, and they invariably lay flowers at the monuments of this provincial city, called the cradle of cosmonautics.
The TSIOLKOVSKY International Space Film Festival is now held here, reflecting all the diversity of space themes in cinema.
A Russian cosmist, a true romantic at heart and thoughts, he spent his whole life striving for what he could only dream of. His dreams were made come true by others, and, perhaps, without Tsiolkovsky, people would not have learned how to make beautiful and intelligent films about alluring unknown worlds…