Aelita: The Queen of Mars

1924, dir Yakov Protazanov w/Yuliya Solntseva, Igor Ilyinsky, Nikolai Tseretel, 111 min, DCP

AELITA: QUEEN OF MARS is the first great ‘over-designed’ science fiction film – and one who’s influence can be seen into the 1950s and beyond. The film is a speculative comedy that follows an inventor from Moscow who dreams of traveling to Mars and wooing its queen – so he builds a rocket to take him there.