Free Fall

There has been no lack of sci-fi cinema in recent years, but most of it was the near-future kind, an easy and often low-effort way to critique current trends. Oleg Urazaykin's Free Fall [Svobodnoe Padenie] is the kind of sci-fi more preoccupied with futuristic designs and aesthetics. It's a Russian take on Gravity that deserves to be seen on the big screen, sadly that wasn't in the cards for Free Fall. It's a small miracle the film still got picked up for a Western release, so I should be grateful to whoever had the balls to put art/entertainment before any geopolitical realities.

Seen purely from a cinephile's perspective, Russia's political course really messed things up. Before 2023, they were doing a great job on fostering an impressive library of genre films, both in horror and sci-fi genres. And n this past decade alone, they've released some bold and capable sci-fi flicks that gave US blockbusters a run for their money. I feel Free Fall (produced in 2023) even exceeds that list of films, but by the time it was ready for a worldwide release, the Western world was starting to boycott all things Russian, and the film was shelved.

Make no mistake, Free Fall is a maximalist roller coaster pur sang. Narrative and aesthetics choices are dictated by how cool and overwhelming they appear, not by how much sense they make. If you watch this film in detective mode, looking for plot holes and logical and/or scientific inconsistencies, you're sure to have a pretty awful time. In that sense, this film was made with a very specific target audience in mind, so keep that in mind when you bump into other critiques of this film. This is a film with the power to be quite divisive.

Maxim Bortnikov is on a repair mission in space when a powerful solar flare releases a proton storm. He fails to get himself to safety, and chaos ensues. The station is hit, and Maxim is bang in the middle of the impact zone. The only one who can save him is Anna, the AI of Delta Station, who oversees the mission. She tries to guide Maxim back to safety, but various debris clouds keep getting in the way, and with each attempt, Maxim's suit loses power and protection. Even so, they can't give up, as they are the only ones who can prevent an even bigger disaster.

Free Fall isn't full-on cyberpunk, but isn't afraid to borrow some of its dirtier aesthetics. Information panels are overcrowded with data, most equipment is of the nuts and bolts kind, and the solar farm looks like a techno club in space. And when everything comes crashing down, the station splinters into a million pieces. Despite being entirely set in space, the visuals are dense, detailed and often colorful, which added a lot to the appeal for me. Add a dash of dynamic camerawork, and you have a true visual spectacle, even though the aesthetic may be divisive.

The audio is very much in line with the visuals, with a lot of focus put on the sound effects to create a techy, sci-fi vibe. Blips and bleeps accompany the graphical interfaces, distorted whizzes and whooshes give a feel of the gritty environmental circumstances. The score is minimalistic, but comes to the front whenever things get more tense, and there are a handful of scenes where it made a real difference. It's all very functional and effective, though I wouldn't have minded if it had been a tad more outspoken still, even if that's mostly just nitpicking. Oh, and it comes with the original Russian dub, which isn't always a given with these films, so that was also a big relief.

There are only four characters in the entirety of the film, three of them are only audible over comms, and one of the three is an AI. So yeah, don't expect an expansive cast here. Alexander Kuznetsov is the only actor who is featured on screen, so he has some weight to carry, even though this isn't the type of film that heavily relies on its actors to do any of the heavy lifting. He does a commendable job, nothing too out of the ordinary, but it's nice enough tagging along with him as he keeps getting himself into more trouble. The voice work is good too, with Anna (the AI) handling the most of the dialogue.

There is no big build-up or a lot of lore to wade through here. In the distance future, some guys are carrying out a mission in space, one of them takes a too much risk after a solar flare causes damages and chaos ensues. All of that happens within the first five or ten minutes, the rest of the film is spent on survival, which more things going awry and the chances of getting out alive becoming increasingly smaller. It's a simple setup, then again, this film isn't some deep commentary on the human condition. It's a visceral experience, so less time spent on trying to explain away every little thing that happens is actually a positive.

It was a bold move to release this film, even though it took them a while. I had moderate expectations going in, but Free Fall quickly and easily surpassed them. The maximalist, dirty sci-fi aesthetic is more than impressive, the execution is slick and polished and there's not a single bit of fat to trim here. It's probably doubtful we'll see anything new by Oleg Urazaykin in the near future, but if anything, he proved he can deliver a gnarly sci-fi flick that ticks all the genre boxes. Hopefully the political mess clears up sooner rather than later and Russia can get back to making quality genre films.