Soviet and Russian sci-fi films like Aelita and Sputnik available to stream
Five Soviet-era and modern Russian science fiction films, including Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris and Egor Abramenko’s Sputnik, are currently available to stream on platforms like Prime Video, Apple TV, and Hoopla.
Yakov Protazanov Examines Post-Civil War Moscow in Aelita
Long before the Space Race amplified the genre, Soviet sci-fi pushed boundaries during an era of radical experimentation. Yakov Protazanov directed the enduring silent space travel classic Aelita in 1924. The film explored the mundane realities of post-civil war Moscow while championing early science fiction elements. That early period of experimentation quickly ended due to heavy state censorship that persisted until the late 1950s. While censorship remained comparatively lax throughout the 1960s and 1970s, any overt political dissent or unorthodox filmmaking faced pushback. Filmmakers utilized science fiction as a covert medium to bypass suffocating rules, turning dystopian conflicts into allegories for totalitarianism and state corruption.
Andrei Tarkovsky Contrasts Kubrick in Solaris
Andrei Tarkovsky directed Solaris in 1972, a film often described as the anti-2001: A Space Odyssey. While Stanley Kubrick’s deliberate starkness explored anxieties of technological advancement, Tarkovsky’s film sidestepped spectacle to examine the human condition. Solaris centers on a space mission that abruptly halts while orbiting a titular planet. Psychologist Kris Kelvin, played by Donatas Banionis, travels to the space station to offer treatment to traumatized scientists, only to experience the same disorienting phenomena. The sentient planet of Solaris acts as a psychological mirror reflecting deep desires and regrets, trapping characters in memory and guilt. The film is currently available to watch on Prime Video and Apple TV.
Georgiy Daneliya Satires Late-Soviet Society in Kin-dza-dza!
Georgiy Daneliya directed the absurd 1986 genre entry Kin-dza-dza!. The film opens in 1980s Moscow as construction foreman Vladimir Mashkov, played by Stanislav Lyubshin, crosses paths with a strange man in a tattered coat asking for the number of his planet in the Tentura. A mysterious teleportation device accidentally transports Vladimir and a Georgian student, played by Levan Gabriadze, to the planet Pluke in the Kin-dza-dza galaxy. Daneliya rejected sleek futuristic aesthetics for salvage punk, featuring heavily battered vehicles and malfunctioning machines built from scavenged junk. The narrative satirizes social hierarchy, resource scarcity, and the absurd nature of governing bodies through surrealist comedy. The film is available to stream on Prime Video and Hoopla.
Egor Abramenko Captures Military Paranoia in Sputnik
Egor Abramenko directed the modern Russian science fiction film Sputnik, set in 1983 Soviet-era Kazakhstan. The film opens with a crash landing, leaving sole survivor Konstantin Veshnyakov, played by Pyotr Fyodorov, with no memories of the event. A military research facility brings in a controversial psychiatrist named Dr. Tatyana, played by Oksana Akinshina, who utilizes unorthodox methods. Tatyana discovers that an unknown creature formed a symbiotic bond with Konstantin prior to the crash. The film captures Soviet-era paranoia and the moral corruption inside secretive military compounds. Sputnik is currently streaming on Prime Video and Kanopy.