Aelita (1924, dir. Yakov Protazanov, set/costume designer Aleksandra Ekster)
Pictured above is the Martian royal palace set from Aelita, one of the earliest science fiction films and among the first films to come out of revolutionary Russia.
Intended as an ideologically correct counterweight to Hollywood films, Aelita tells the story of Earthling visitors to Mars who stir up a proletarian rebellion among Martian slaves, overthrow the monarchy, and establish the “Martian Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”
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