Son & Moon: diario de un astronauta (2009) Reviews

• An overlooked gem

  sara-martin-12015-09-17

  'Son & Moon: Diario de un astronauta'is a beautiful documentary made by the well-known Catalan director Manuel Huerga, which portrays the stay on board the International Space Station of Spanish-American astronaut Miguel Lopez-Alegria (now retired). Instead of the habitual heroics of space exploration, Huerga chose to show, with Lopez-Alegria's collaboration, an intimate side of the astronaut. Here he is portrayed as a concerned father, worried by his seven-tear old son's resistance to go on communicating with him, as he stays 400kms above their home. Son & Moon is in this sense a very good portrait of the career father, always under pressure to balance work and family life. Closer, then, to '2001' and to 'Moon' than to 'The Right Stuff', Huerga's film offers a glimpse of actual life in space, with its wonders (the amazing views) and its downside (the routine, the distance from home). It really deserves more attention - certainly more than the acclaimed but utterly shallow 'Space Tourists' which describes the same ISS mission.