A Soviet pilot, empty cockpit, and an Aleut god walk into 1943 Alaska...
The film is based on a true story that happened in Alaska in summer, 1943. Soviet pilot crew is flying new American bomber from the USA to the USSR under lend-lease& The pilot lands at an air base in the town of Nome for refueling only to find out that his partner has disappeared in the middle of the flight. Navigator cockpit is open, and the navigator himself has vanished into the thin air. Soviet and American intelligence do not believe in supernatural power, especially since the solder's missing parachute pack has valuable intelligence data. Recon teams of the two rival countries set out to search it in the depth of Alaska forest, however, soon another mysterious player joins the game, an aleut deity called Bansu.
Cinematography
Alaska's vast emptiness as psychological pressure cooker
Direction
Kostomarov balances procedural realism with creeping dread
Practical Effects
Period-accurate bombers and frozen wilderness locations
Director
Pavel Kostomarov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Bansu (or Banu) is a figure from Aleut/Unangan folklore associated with transformation and liminal spaces—fitting for a story about borders, disappearances, and men caught between worlds.
The real 1943 Alaska-Siberia air route moved 8,000+ aircraft; this film weaponizes that historical blank space where thousands of men flew through silent, unforgiving emptiness.
RU
