First on the Moon

First on the Moon by Alexei Fedorchenko (Pervye na lune, 2005, 76 min.). In Alexei Fedorchenko's unsettling debut film, it wasn't Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin who first set foot on the moon in 1969, but Soviet cosmopilot Ivan Kharlamov in 1938. Piloting his experimental and highly secretive craft from the moon back to Chile, he undertook an arduous journey across the Pacific, through China and Mongolia, and finally into Mother Russia itself. As an "alternative history," First on the Moon is a touching expression of an unfettered utopian spirit, a sense of the limitless possibilities of human ingenuity and imagination that characterized many people's vision of the Soviet experiment before its grim realities settled in. MFA members, seniors, and students