This film is unusual, even by the standard of Soviet animation. It begins as a sci-fi story, with a group of Cosmonauts sent on a journey across space (and perhaps time). However, not long into the trip, things start to converge with the Greek mythology story of Phaethon (son of the Sun God, Helios), who defies his father and drives his chariot across the skies. The line between the two parallel stories is blurry, is it literal? Imagined? Hard to say.
The complexity of the story, crammed into a 16 minute run time, makes this a challenging film to follow and the point is oblique at best. The visual style is in keeping with much of the Soviet animation of the era (the more experimental films at least), employing cut-outs and montage editing.
Intriguing, if not particularly enjoyable.
