Two astronauts go on a 1980s space mission, but on return to Earth only one survives and harbours something very unexpected in this grim, bleak Russian sci-fi thriller. Pace and tone are generally relentlessly slow, plotting and motivations can be rather haphazard, yet effects work is deployed sparingly but well and there are occasional lively, interesting and thought-provoking moments. Sputnik is an occasionally gory but earnest if slightly dull affair overall.
