IRISH PREMIERE
Christian Frei’s film delves into the phenomenon of spacetourism where billionaires pay huge sums of money to become astronauts as part of the Russian space programme. Anousheh Ansari dreamt of going into outer space since childhood. A number of years and $20 million later, she realised her dream – Ansari became the first female space tourist. Featuring stunning scenes, the film documents her preparations and accompanies her on her day-to-day existence aboard the International Space Station. The magnificent beauty of space is contrasted with Kazakhstan’s almost post-apocalyptic terrain, where disused rockets and space shuttles, the remnants of the Soviet space programme, litter the landscape. Humorous and always utterly fascinating, Space Tourists won Frei a best director prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.