The Challenge (2023 film)

The Challenge (Russian: Вызов, romanized: Vyzov) is a 2023 Russian space drama film co-written and directed by Klim Shipenko. Filmed on the International Space Station (ISS), it is the first fictional, feature-length film featuring actors to be shot in space. The film stars Yulia Peresild as a surgeon sent to space to help an injured cosmonaut. The cast also includes Miloš Biković and Vladimir Mashkov. The film crew was accompanied by cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Oleg Novitsky, and Pyotr Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei.

The Challenge marks the first collaboration between the Russian space corporation Roscosmos and the public broadcaster Channel One, with an approximate budget of around 1.155 billion rubles. Filming on the ISS took place for nearly two weeks.

The Challenge premiered on Cosmonautics Day and was theatrically released in Serbia and Russia on 20 April 2023 by Central Partnership, on CosMAX, an analogue of IMAX.

The film generated more than 1 billion rubles at the box office by the thirteenth day of theatrical showings. It holds the record for the highest-grossing Russian film on its opening day, and it grossed over 2 billion rubles against a production budget of 905 million rubles.