HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

Have you heard the one about the secret 1960s deal where the U.S. bought the nuts and bolts of the then-burgeoning Yugoslavia space program, with the intention of using these innovations to bolster its own technology? If you aren’t familiar, you’re not alone. The documentary-style HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM! is an elaborate, fictionalized take on the oft-covered global race to outer space. The film merges preposterous details (for example, a pig used as a tragic test pilot) with true happenings, such as vintage newsreel footage and actual audio conversations between President John F. Kennedy and Yugoslavia President Josip Tito. Poised interviews with credible sources—including historians, a NASA engineer, and a Slovenian philosopher—further help create a convincing (if alternative) narrative. Historical revisionism at its most entertaining and meticulous, HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM! is a seamless commentary on how easy it is to believe a well-constructed yarn—and how plausibility and truth are sometimes mutually exclusive. (In English, Slovenian, Serbian, and Croatian with subtitles) —A.Z. HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM! was selected as Slovenia's entry for Best Foreign Language Film for this year's Academy Awards®.