Starring Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk, Pyotr Fyodorov and Anton Vasilev. Written by Oleg Malovichko and Andrey Zolotarev. Directed by Egor Abramenko.

In 1980s Russia an independently-minded doctor, Tatyana Klimova (Akinshina), is taken to a military base to help with research focusing on a cosmonaut, Konstantin Veshnyakov (Fyodorov), who has formed a symbiotic bond with a cortisol-consuming alien creature living inside him. Tatyana discovers that the alien can exit its host to feed on live human victims provided by the military authorities. Horrified by this revelation, Tatyana sets out to help Konstantin… but is the cosmonaut complicit in what happens to the victims?

First of all, you shouldn’t go into this Russian film thinking that it’s going to be a full-on sci-fi-horror flick like ALIEN. This is not a monster-on-the-loose film: it focuses more on the unravelling of what the link is between alien and host, what the military are actually planning to do, how the relationships evolve between the main characters, and so on.

But don’t worry, you do get alien attack scenes too!

I really enjoyed the movie, which is handled expertly by first-time director Egor Abramenko. The musical score, by Oleg Karpachev, is very good too, adding to the tension.

SPUTNIK is definitely worth a watch, with a story that works really well, with interesting reveals happening as the plot progresses.