"Always remain human": team Solaris from Moldova on moral choice and the future of space
This year, the video essay contest "Dreams of the Future", organised by the National Centre RUSSIA, received international status, and one of the winners was team Solaris from Moldova, which took third place in the 12-15 age category. On the day of the award ceremony at the National Centre RUSSIA, the young foreign guests shared how Andrei Tarkovsky’s film inspired their team name and video, why they did not believe they could succeed, and what matters more to humanity than any technology.
The contest video, created by three girls, tells the story of how, even in space, among the latest technological inventions and futuristic landscapes, the most important thing remains the human being and their moral choice.
"In the story, we are three heroines who are studying the Earth from space, but it gradually becomes clear that two of the heroines exist only in the memories of the third. In the finale, the main heroine has to make a choice: to save people and do something good for society or to choose personal comfort. We were inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky’s film 'Solaris' and even named our team after it. We wanted to show how important it is in the modern world not only to develop innovations, but also to preserve one’s inner self," Sofia Nikiforenko explained in detail.
Darya Tomina admitted that even making it to the final came as a great surprise and joy to the girls, while third place felt almost beyond belief: "Even when we made it into the top 10 and were told the news, at first we did not believe it. We are very happy to have achieved this result, although at first we had only hoped to gain experience by taking part."
One of the secrets behind the team’s success was that its members are not just contest teammates, but true school friends. Varvara Boychuk said that working together was easy and joyful for them.
"We discussed everyone’s ideas and took them into account, so I think we did really well. We would be happy to take part in contests like this in the future. And to bring a happy future closer, I believe it is important to remain human in any situation, no matter how it turns out for you. It is also essential to keep improving yourself, gain new experience and broaden your horizons," Varvara Boychuk concluded.
The second video essay contest "Dreams of the Future" invited participants to discuss what matters most: what we want tomorrow to look like. Almost four thousand young creators from all regions of Russia and 10 neighbouring countries made inspiring videos on science, technology, nature and space, combining real footage with artificial intelligence tools and believing in victory. The winners were announced at the National Centre RUSSIAon 7 June.
