• Director(s):

    CERASUOLO (Enrico), BERNARD (ALESSANDRO), CERETTO (PAOLO)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE FRANCE, STUDIO INTERNATIONAL

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2007

  • Language(s):

    German, English, French

  • Rights:

    NON-THEATRICAL, TV

The 60s, two amateur radio enthusiasts, listened to sound from space with home-built equipment in their hometown Torino. But one night, they recorded something quite different from the usual static that would change their life forever...

During the early 60s, brother Achille and Giovanni Judica-Cordiglia, two amateur radio enthusiasts, listened to sound from space with home-built equipment in their hometown Torino.
But one night in 61, some weeks prior to Gagarin's historical mission, they recorded something quite different from the usual static that would change their life forever. Clear sounds from space had reached their home-made listening station: a agonizing heartbeat, heavy laboured breathing. It was a Russian cosmonaut only seconds before his death.
Unknown to all, they had just hacked a radio transmission from Sputnik to Earth. Thanks to the young pair's talent and curiosity, they kept on recording the developments in the Cold War space race. The superpowers, USA and USSR, sought to gain technological, military and ideological supremacy, yet in their frenzy to champion space manned missions, they did not know that two space hackers were eavesdropping on them.
Today, in an age that takes global communication for granted, our unwitting pioneers have been largely forgotten, yet their incredible private archive, made of unique audio-recordings and 8mm and Super 8mm films allows us to tell their amazing story.