The Edge of Being
Plesetsk sits near the northern base of Russia's aerospace forces, in a stretch of forest where spent rocket stages fall back to earth after every launch. Director Dmitry Zawilgelskiy trains his camera on the farmers and villagers who live under that debris field, letting them describe in their own words what decades of falling rocket splinters have done to their land, their health, and their sense of safety. Interviews carry most of the film, shot plainly in kitchens, fields, and the abandoned settlements the space program has emptied out, with little narration standing between the camera and the people speaking. Nobody here is presented as a simple victim; the film also shows residents adapting, salvaging, and arguing about what they are owed. There is no villain named onscreen, no official blamed by name, just a slow accumulation of testimony pointing at a program that runs on schedules set far from Plesetsk. The camera stays local, and the space race stays background noise heard mostly as an engine overhead.