In 1961 President John F. Kennedy started the United States on a path of discovery and exploration that captures the best of mankind's spirit. On April 12th, 1961, the Soviet Union reports the successful launch, orbit and reentry of the first man in space, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin pushing the cold war into a space duel. With the collapse of communism and the rise of freedom in the Russian Federation, recent access to documents in the Kremlin archives reveal a story intended to remain buried forever. Yuri Gagarin, the icon of triumphant communism known world over, was not the first man in space. He was preceded by Vladimir Ilyushin, an unsung hero and the man at the center of this decades old conspiracy.

If your old enough to remember when Russian proclaimed to be the first to launch a man into space you are in for a shock or two. This sounds like something straight out of Hollywood but even they couldn't come up with something this bizarre. I suppose it was important for all countries to be the first in achieving this but the lengths the Soviets went to boggle the mind. It is a conspiracy of epic proportions. I am not going to go into every detail and cover up because this needs to seen to even be believed but I can say after watching this everything you might have read in your history books seems like a big lie. The Soviets were so determined to be successful that failure of any kind was just not going to happen, at least as far the the people knew. Vladimir Ilyushin was the obvious choice to send into space, after-all he had the most experience in a jet and seemed the perfect fit, so why was Yuri Gagarin sent up instead, a man with very little time in? Simple fact is he wasn't but a mission that was to be considered a failure was wiped clean like it never happened and Yuri was then sent up as the second man and once he made it home safely and was able to step in front of a camera for the world to see he began to live a lie that took its toll on him and his family. Let me tell you this is more than just your basic cover-up, the Soviets lied then had to lie again over and over to try and keep their story going. Questions still remain today but even as I write this neither the Soviets or the United States are willing to release the official information on the truth of who was the first man in space and what happened to Yuri Gagarin? Did he really die in that jet crash, why was no body found and why was there a funeral without first recovering the body? I cannot recommend seeing this film enough, the great Elliot Gould hosts this Documentary,he seems a perfect fit and he really grabs your attention in the first minute and you are glued to screen till the final shocking moments and believe me there is many of those. I was shocked,baffled and even a bit angry watching this film but in a way I was also amazed at what a country would do to reach its goal even if it meant death. Theatrical release dates are to be announced but check back here as I will update dates when they become available. This is a must-see and one of the best films I have seen in some time. Released by Indican Pictures. ***** Out Of *****