Baikonur. Earth

Italy2019documentary76'Docs+Science (2020)

The Baikonur Cosmodrome developed in the 1950s is the birthplace of the myth of Soviet space exploration and the symbol of its growth and decline followed by partial resurrection. It is from this spaceport that Sputnik satellites, Laika the dog and Yuri Gagarin were launched into space. Baikonur symbolises the unachieved utopia of man’s peaceful presence outside Earth, but this desert region of Kazakhstan, crossed by the Silk Road in the past, is also the place where other myths have been building up. Andreo Sorinini’s camera captures its surreal landscape in a poetic, albeit not sentimental way.