Ilya is a cripple without the use of his legs. When he aids some weary travellers, they surprise him by giving him a potion that restores his legs. He immediately becomes powerful and sets off to prove himself to his King. Doing so, he fights the evil Tugars, a wind demon that looks like a cross between a goblin and The Noid, a zeppelin-like ambassador, and the evil Tugars. Ilya gets framed for a crime he didn't commit, then is freed, then finally dispatches the Tugars and their dragon.

This tale of an aborted Mars expedition features spectacular "spacescapes", as well as a prescient depiction of the Earth's orbit as cluttered by manmade satellites. Sound familiar? Francis Ford Coppola liberally borrowed footage from this Russian Sci-Fi film for his 1963 directorial debut, the Roger Corman production Battle Beyond the Sun.
80min