Russian crew returns after shoot aboard ISS

MOSCOW, Oct 17, (AP): A Soyuz space capsule carrying a cosmonaut and two Russian filmmakers has landed after a 3 1/2-hour trip from the International Space Station.

The capsule, descending under a red-and-white striped parachute after entering Earth’s atmosphere, landed upright in the steppes of Kazakhstan on schedule at 0435 GMT Sunday with Oleg Novitskiy, Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko aboard.

Actress Peresild and film director Shipenko rocketed to the space station on Oct. 5 for a 12-day stint to film segments of a movie titled “Challenge,” in which a surgeon played by Peresild rushes to the space station to save a crew member who needs an urgent operation in orbit. Novitskiy, who spent more than six months aboard the space station, is to star as the ailing cosmonaut in the movie.

After the landing, which sent plumes of dust flying high in the air, ground crews extracted the three space flyers from the capsule and placed them in seats set up nearby as they adjusted to the pull of gravity. They were then taken to a medical tent for examination.

All appeared healthy and cheerful. Peresild smiled and held a large bouquet of white flowers as journalists clustered around her. But she said she also felt a touch of melancholy.

“I’m feeling a bit sad today. It seemed that 12 days would be a lot, but I did not want to leave when everything was over,” Peresild said on state TV.

The transfer to the medical tent was delayed for about 10 minutes while crews filmed several takes of Peresild and Novitskiy in their seats, which are to be included in the movie. More scenes remain to be shot on Earth for the film whose release date is uncertain.

Seven astronauts remain aboard the space station: Russia’s Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov; Americans Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency; and Japan’s Aki Hoshide.

Africa’s largest film festival kicks off Saturday in Burkina Faso amid both the COVID-19 pandemic and a growing jihadi insurgency in the West African nation that has killed thousands of people and displaced more than 1 million in recent years.

Alex Moussa Sawadogo, head of the Pan-African Film and TV Festival of Ouagadougou said organizers wanted to go ahead with the event known by its French acronym, FESPACO in spite of the challenges to show Burkina Faso can still “inspire imagination through cinema.”

“This event will be a FESPACO of resistance because it is taking place under harsh security and health conditions,” he told The Associated Press in an interview in the capital, Ouagadougou.

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Sawadogo said the number of venues has been reduced this year.

The weeklong festival showcases works by African filmmakers and works produced on the continent. Out of nearly 1,200 films submitted, 282 have been selected to compete, some of which have already been shown at places like Cannes and the Toronto Film Festival.

Participants say they hope FESPACO will be a breath of fresh air for a suffering nation. Boubakar Diallo, a film director and two-time FESPACO winner, will debut his comedy, “The 3 Lascars”, about three friends going on a trip with their mistresses.

“In these very difficult times for Burkina Faso and all the countries of the Sahel because of the terrorist attacks, I have the pleasure of offering a beautiful comedy to make people smile, to entertain the public and ask questions about our current identity, to show our identity to others and enjoy theirs,” Diallo, 59, said.

Burkina Faso was once regarded as a beacon of peaceful coexistence in the region, which some attribute to its rich cultural scene.

“Culture builds the ground for development. It is crucial for living together in peace,” said Alexander Widmer, head of governance at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in

Burkina Faso, which co-funds the film festival.

Some people think the event could be an opportunity to unite an increasingly fractured nation and remind the world that it’s still open for business.

“It’s now that FESPACO is even more important for the country,” said Koudbi Kabore, a historian and researcher at Joseph Ki Zerbo University in Ouagadougou. “It showcases African cinema, and holding it will undoubtedly return Burkina Faso’s image of being a good destination for business and investment.”

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ORANGEBURG, S.C.: South Carolina Public Television stations are showing a documentary about how a Confederate flag flying outside an ice cream shop ruined a businessman’s dream.

“Meltdown in Dixie” tells the story of Tommy Daras and his Edisto River Creamery in Orangeburg. At the edge of the restaurant is a tiny plot of land belonging to the Sons of Confederate Veterans just big enough for a flagpole and a Confederate flag.

Daras didn’t think much about the flag at first. But after the racist massacre that killed nine people at a Charleston church, he decided he didn’t want the flag at his business anymore.

But the Sons of Confederate Veterans refused to move it. The land was given to them by the previous owner, barbecue baron Maurice Bessinger, who was a white supremacist and kept literature at this restaurants saying slavery was not bad.

Daras fought the organization in court over zoning and other matters, but did not win. The bad publicity from the flag eventually led him to close the restaurant, which remains vacant today.

The film was made by documentary filmmaker Emily Harrold from Orangeburg, It tells the story of the showdown through the words of the people involved and allows people watching it to come up with their own opinions.