Yuri, 16, has lived all his life in Gagarin Towers, a vast red-brick housing project on the outskirts of Paris. He dreams of becoming an astronaut. When plans to demolish Gagarin Towers leak out, Yuri joins the resistance. With his friends Diana and Houssam, he embarks on a mission to save their home, which has become his "starship."
What the critics are saying:
It’s a piece of urban history seen through the lens of magic realism, a fragile but beguiling fantasy, tethered now and then to gritty reality, about a do-gooder doing the best he can against daunting odds.
-Joe Morgenstern
Wall Street Journal
"Gagarine" is a dream built from debris, a rocketship made from rubble, and a touching tribute to stratospheric aspirations thriving against the odds in even the most maligned and marginalized communities.
-Jessica Kiang
Variety
This dreamlike romance can certainly be deemed a flagship for the continuation of imagination and ambition in French cinema.-
-Jonathan Romney
Screen International