- Released: August 9, 2019
- Directed by: Elsa Kremser, Levin Peter
- Running time: 1 h 31 min
- Rating 3/5
Synopsis
A documentary split into two sections: one part about the use of Soviet dogs like Laika during the Space Race, and one section about the harsh lives of modern-day strays in Moscow.My Thoughts
This one has been on my to-watch list for a while, so when I came across the DVD on my trip to Berlin I instantly bought it. And unfortunately I don't like it that much. Before I go any further into this review, please note that hereby I give you a content warning for animal cruelty and death. Not just for the documentary itself, also for mentions in this review.
Like said above, this documentary is split into two types of sections which are switched between. The sections I really expected with this movie based on the title and poster was the ones about the dogs during the Space Race. I'd expected this to be an informative documentary about how they were used there, what kind of training they went through, the aftermath, dedicated accounts to the lives of Laika, Belka, Strelka and maybe some other dogs. Instead both sections, the ones with the strays and the ones with the space dogs, are presented to us viewers with little to no dialogue or context. They're just given to us straightforward.
Which on the one hand leads to some atmospheric scenes, especially the ones where we just follow the modern-day strays of Moscow. Each of the shots in this section are usually rather long and played straightforward with no commentary, just letting the visuals, audio and soundtrack do the work. But this also leads to the documentary just kind of feeling like...well, not much. With a documentary you expect it to teach you something or have some kind of statement to make, and with there barely being any narration we're really not given much information or a statement at all.
This becomes all the more apparent during the Soviet space dogs sections, where we're just given straightforward archive footage of the dogs being put through stressful tests and painful procedures. Which sucks, but was also a part of that reality. But instead of the narrator giving commentary on it we're barely given anything and it basically just amounts to us watching animal cruelty with nothing more to it. Like it sucks and it was a reality, but at least make some sort of statement about it? Give us context, tell us what these tests and procedures were for and why they were necessary. Tell us about the individual dogs we're being shown. What's their names, what's their stories? There have to have been more than just Laika, Belka and Strelka, who are the most famous Soviet space dogs.
The documentary as a whole, because of the lack of information (beyond the very bare bones, which I already knew from reading up on this before) and narration, just feels like it kind of lacks a statement. The closest I could get is "life for Russian/Soviet stray dogs is hard". That's it. The narration doesn't really condemn nor encourage the use of the dogs during the Space Race, it's just really straightforward. I guess you could say that this is meant to give the viewer the opportunity to come to their own conclusions, but to me it just comes off as lazy, especially when it is clear that the animals went through hell yet the movie still presents everything in a rather neutral context. Plus they still could've given us more information while remaining neutral on the subject. There's just barely any narration in the entire movie, only a few lines, so like I just said, we're taught nothing, so not even really given anything to make come to our own conclusions of.
There's also one scene in the stray dog sections where we see two strays (one in particular) attacking an outside cat and yeah, it's not fun to watch. We get to see the entire ordeal in one painfully long shot, where he first sees the cat, attacks it, grabs it in his mouth, shakes it, the cat slowly stops struggling, and finally just outright dies in the grass. Which is just...yeesh. I mean, yes, I've seen plenty of documentaries in my time with animals killing other animals (e.g. wolves killing deer, lions and cheetahs killing antelope, etc.), but there it's very much a necessity for survival because it is a predator killing prey.
The dog killing the cat doesn't even do anything with the cat once it's dead, not even try to eat it, instead it just leaves it and moves on like nothing happened. So what was the point in filming all that, especially when presented without commentary? "Here's some dogs killing a cat, look at it in this painfully long shot where you get to see its painful last moments and see it draw its final breath." That's very much about how it comes across and yet again with no real statement being made about it. Just for shock value, I guess?
I don't know, I do like parts of this documentary, especially the long and atmospheric shots of the stray dogs just living their lives and walking around town (well, minus the cat attack scene), but the rest just feels hollow. A lot of animal cruelty is shown with no commentary, the documentary doesn't feel like it has much of a statement to make, and it barely even gives any information at all due to the narrator barely being present. It also feels unfocused with the two different sections, I'd have chosen to either make a movie about Russian strays or just space dogs, because right now it feels like we're in two completely different movies, the only real connective tissue being that they're both about Russian/Soviet dogs.
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