a.k.a. Mechte Navstrechu / Begegnung im All
company: Odessa Film Studios
year: 1963
runtime: 64′
country: USSR
directors: Mikhael Karzhukov
and Otar Koberidze
cast: Larisa Gordeichik, Boris Borisenko,
Otar Koberidze, Peeter Kard, A. Genesin,
V. Yanpavlis, Nikolai Timofeyev,
Nikolai Volkov, T. Pochepa
writers: A. Berdnik, Ivan Bondin,
Mikhail Karzhukov, and Otar Koberidze
Not on home video in the USA
order (German, no subs) from Amazon.de
Plot: An alien race from the planet Centurian hears a radio transmission from Earth and attempts to fly here. Their mission goes horribly wrong, and Earth scientists – having heard their distress call – embark on a rescue mission to Mars, where it is believed the Centurians have crash landed.
This is another of those obscure Soviet science fiction epics whose American distribution rights were purchased on the cheap by Roger Corman, who culled them of special effects footage and re-edited them into ultra low-budget exploitation vehicles. The ample effects work of A Dream Come True will be most familiar to domestic audiences for its inclusion in the cheapie space vampire flick Queen of Blood (or Planet of Blood, or Planet of Terror, which also used footage from the earlier The Heavens Call, which had previously been edited into Battle Beyond The Sun), though the film itself has never been given a proper English-language release.
A Dream Come True, directed by The Heavens Call‘s Mikhael Karzhukov and actor / writer Otar Koberidze, operates at a lower dramatic level than the more renowned Soviet Bloc efforts like The Silent Star. Essentially an extended daydream of star Larisa Gordeichik (as cosmonaut Tanya), the extraodrinarily brief picture has little in the way of drama to drive it along. The closest one comes to finding conflict among the cast is when an old professor postulates that the extraterrestrials of the film may be hostile, a belief not held by the younger generation of scientists and cosmonauts. A Dream Come True postulates a world in which Soviet ideals have apparently been accepted worldwide, and in which conflict between nations no longer exists.
The opening treats us to a montage of scientists living in the near-utopian community of a space institute by the sea. There they spend their days swimming, sailing, painting, and singing happy songs about how great things would be if the Universe would band together in friendship. It is one of these songs that is heard by the beings of the planet Centurian, and its hopeful message what convinces them that us Earthlings are worth the trouble of visiting. Their radio signals unintelligible to Earth scientists, the older of the academic community (remembering the wars of the past, no doubt) are concerned about their possible intentions. But the younger generation is convinced that such intelligent beings could only have peace in mind, and no time is wasted in mounting a rescue mission when the Centurian spaceship crash lands on Mars.
Slow to build, A Dream Come True gets moving once the Earth rescue mission – spearheaded by the new rocketship Ocean – is underway. Problems are encountered almost immediately, as the ship uses most of its available atomic fuel in surviving an unexpected solar flare-up. Their landing on Mars is successful, though fuel reserves may be too low to allow a return trip. Worse, their investigation of the crashed Centurian craft reveals that its only cosmonaut is dead. A search for possible survivors is quickly mounted, resulting in a second ship travelling to Mars so that video satellites can be put into orbit around the planet to aid in the search. This ship, too, encounters trouble, and is forced to land on Mars’ moon Phobos.
A relatively standard self-sacrifice-in-the-name-of-science subplot is implanted here, as an alien survivor is discovered on Phobos. The emergency transport aboard the second ship can only carry two people and the additional fuel for Ocean’s return trip, so one of its two person crew – Tanya the cosmonaut’s lover – is left behind to die. After much wandering amidst the wind-whipped dunes of Mars the Centurian and the surviving cosmonaut reach Ocean safely, where it is revealed for certain that the space visitors have come in peace.
There is certainly some irony in the juxtaposition of the practices of the Cold War Soviet Union and A Dream Come True‘s message of peace and universal harmony (it was released a scant few months after the conclusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis). It’s narrative is obviously highly propagandic, espousing not just hope but certainty that a future dominated by the USSR’s communist ideals would be a vibrant one full of untold scientific wonders. The Soviets were doing quite well in the space race at the time, having launched both the first Earth-orbiting satellite and the first man into space – the great meeting place at the space institute in the film is named Gagarin Square in the latter’s honor. Interest in the Soviet space program was, naturally, high among citizens, and films like A Dream Come True undoubtedly played very well with domestic audiences.
All dramatic inertness and idealism aside, the real reason to see A Dream Come True is its exceptional special effects production. The space race being big news at the time, production companies in the Soviet Union spared few expenses in bringing their visions of interplanetary exploration to the screen and the results typical bested those of contemporary efforts from elsewhere in the world. A Dream Come True can boast expansive matte effects, impressive alien vistas (the arresting view of Mars from Phobos for example), and some of the finest ship design in all of sci-fi-dom. The Centurian culture is full of ethereal light and smooth edges, evoking a society that has moved far beyond the purely technical and merged the fields of art and science completely.
There is no domestic DVD release of A Dream Come True in sight, though First Run Features’ 2005 boxed set of DEFA space films did leave me with some hope that other Eastern bloc sci-fi might someday make it to these shores. Filling the void for now is German DVD outfit Icestorm Distribution, who released the film in its slightly trimmed and DEFA-dubbed East German variant Begegnung im All in June of this year. While in German with no subtitles, the PAL disc presents an exceptional transfer of the film and is highly recommended to collectors and serious science fiction enthusiasts. Extras include an image gallery and a theatrical trailer.
The drama may be inert and the preponderence of former-Soviet ideals grating, but A Dream Come True‘s exceptional special effects and production design will be enough to make it compelling viewing for genre fans. Here’s hoping it receives a proper English-friendly home video release somewhere down the line. Highly recommended.
