watch an excerpt from the movie
Space - the final frontier - is to be conquered
by powerful men with thrusting rockets. Or is it?
Zero Genies Ansuman Biswas and Jem Finer beg to differ. Slightly inept
trainees of an ancient mystic sect, they have somehow managed to infiltrate
the Cosmonaut’s Training Programme in Star City, Moscow. They are determined
to practice the kind of space flight taught by a long line of sages… and
they certainly need the practice.
Thousands of years of spiritual insight and shamanic technology have enabled
humans to explore the entire universe, conversing with the denizens of
other worlds and witnessing far out visions. The Zero Genies are just
beginners. Poverty stricken, slightly uncoordinated, and yet noble, they
are convinced that space travel is not the exclusive pursuit of the rich
and rational Western world. They are here to show that a comfortable carpet
and well-packed hookah will suffice.
At the Cosmonaut’s Training Centre in Star City, aircraft with cushioned
interiors create weightless conditions on board by plummeting out of the
sky. The Zero Genies, hailing from an obscure land on the fringes of civilization,
want to put Race back into the Space Race.
So, within the magic lantern of a Russian cargo plane, they demonstrate
the ancient wisdom of their people. They dance, levitate, and reveal,
for the very first time in the West, the mythical Flying Carpet.
On a shoestring budget, with mental discipline and Russian hospitality,
the Zero Genies defy gravity and military-industrial economics to celebrate
the dream within us all.