Conceptually a fantastic drama of deep space astronauts and the experiences they endure. But it comes up short in execution, even State made Soviet SF is more watchable. The soundtrack is absolutely awful and should in no way be a part of this film. Pacing of the action is slow and dreary. Visually looks like a 16mm film school project. Granted we have great actors in this movie, but they alone cannot save the movie. It's something that needs to be seen if only for comparison purposes.

At the time of my review, the other reviews are all either raves or pans. Mine is somewhat between.

This Russian style movie doesn't translate too well, but the communication problem looks to be more sever than that. It's about six astronauts on a doomed mission. One dies in space in an accident, leaving another with guilty feeling flashbacks during the return trip.

The return trip also goes badly, as the remaining five are stranded in the desert. This is before cell phones, internet, all that jazz, and no one knows they are there. Sort of like the Twilight Zone episode.

The movie is more or less about the breakdown of these professionals in the wild.

That had promise. However, it looked very slipshod in editing, and we aren't sure what happens to a couple of characters in a very bizarre, disoriented chain of events. One problem is that we only get a point of view of three of the characters, yet one of the other two becomes a mutineer.

This could have been a good film, on the order of SILENT RUNNING or ROBINSON CURSOE ON MARS, but it is too disjointed, and it can't be blamed on budget, because the fact is that the plot and events are left with gaping holes that could be rectified without any budget at all.

It isn't as great as some say, nor as bad as some say. In an evaluation to give a person an idea of what to expect, I can say that although it is not action oriented, it does flow fairly well, with enough drama and suspense, enough scenery and atmosphere, to cover for lack of action itself. The monotone style of speaking of the characters may be because of dubbing, but I think it is intentional for effect. I've been more bored by many high octane action movies, but also more entertained by less action. It falls somewhere in between.

On the plus side, it sticks with you. After many years, I still find much of it very impressionable, and memorable, for good or bad.

It should have been better, but it won't disappoint completely. I think it is a movie that bears watching.

It's pretty sad that other people that reviewed this movie either didn't pay attention to it or didn't watch all of it because they didn't understand the begining , the middle or the ending. Basically 3 ships go on a mission looking for life. One returns with that proof but because of a loss of communication with Earth they are thought to have all perished. Because of the cost of the mission and it's percieved failure ALL space funding is cut(so no one to monitor in case they did return and no shuttle in orbit to bring them home) so they return to Earth in their escape capsule and land off the coast of Baja and come ashore in a very remote section of it . Then they try to survive the desert as they try to walk out of the desert to find civilization wwhile they carry proof of life from Ganymed(it's spelled that way because it's a German movie-- so yes, it's spelled right). Due to the heat and dangers of the desert only on astronaut survives but only after losing the proof during a heat induced hallacination.