On May 30th, an exclusive screening of Apple TV’s international series “Star City” took place at Apollo Cinema in Vilnius. Members of the film industry community were invited to attend a special screening of the first two episodes of the series, both filmed in Vilnius.
“Star City” is a new Apple TV series produced by Sony Pictures Television and a spin-off of the acclaimed alternate-history sci-fi series “For All Mankind”. The story explores the Soviet space program in an alternate reality where the Soviets were the first to land on the Moon during the space race with the United States.
The screening was attended by members of the creative team behind the series, including producer Steve Oster.
The eight-episode series was filmed across various locations in Vilnius, which were transformed into the world of the Soviet space program for the screen. The creators of the project emphasized that Vilnius attracted them not only because of its architectural authenticity, but also due to its strong local film industry infrastructure.
“It can be a bit of a gamble bringing a project of this size into a smaller film hub, however having seen the quality of the previous projects that were shot here, I was confident that we’d have a positive experience. That said, our expectations were vastly exceeded both in terms of the quality of the look and feel that the local production community delivered for “Star City”, as well as the working style of the local staff/crews. Not only did we wind up with an amazing looking series, the professionalism, creativity and positive attitude that the local community brought to the project made shooting the series here one of the best experiences I’ve had in my 40 years of producing.”, says producer Steve Oster.
Director Nick Murphy notes that Vilnius offered something productions rarely manage to recreate elsewhere: “I’d already shot a film in Vilnius with Baltic Film Services about the Chernobyl disaster, so I knew something of what the city and country had to offer. In part it was the remnants of Soviet architecture that gave us an authenticity that productions simply cannot find through visual trickery elsewhere. But I have to say it was as much the quality I knew we’d find in the crews and construction and design teams. As well as the cost efficiency compared to London and LA and Budapest etc., I knew the crafts people would intuitively understand what Soviet culture, interiors, and characters looked like. We’d never possibly have achieved this level of authenticity and professionalism had we shot it anywhere else.”
Murphy also emphasized that while “Star City” explores an alternate version of history, the creators were committed to portraying the emotional and political realities behind the Soviet system honestly: “Most of the characters in our show passionately believe in the Soviet system – they are prepared to risk everything and even do dreadful things for its success and preservation. On the other hand, not allowing the audience to see that often barbaric system for what it really was would be unthinkable to us. The tension between those two things is present from the first frame to the last in “Star City”.”
According to Murphy, the creators were also careful to avoid stereotypical portrayals often associated with Soviet imagery in Western cinema: “If you get the smaller details right – which takes huge effort and skill from the whole production team – then you don’t need the bigger, clunky gestures.”
Discussing the influence Vilnius had on the writing and atmosphere of the series, “Star City” creators Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi said: „We were constantly influenced by Vilnius while shooting, how could you not be?! Things as simple as walking by the Neris River, and then setting a pivotal scene there in episode 106. Not to mention the people we spoke with and the impressive museums documenting the incredibly difficult era of Soviet occupation, it brought those struggles to life in a real way. But we were inspired very early on as well – on our first scout, we saw that certain Vilnius streets had a lot in common with Parisian streets, and so wrote to that in the second episode of the series. We knew that we could tell a truly international story, shot all in Vilnius.“
Addressing the challenge of portraying the Soviet side of the space race without falling into familiar stereotypes, the creators emphasized that, “To us the key to Star City not feeling like a cliche is that the people living in this Soviet world were three dimensional. Everyone had their hopes, their secrets, their frustrations. But at the same time it was important to us to really capture the sense of oppression and paranoia that they lived under. Tanya was a particularly important character in this regard, someone living almost as a bird in a cage, an artist who has followed her cosmonaut husband to a remote city but still longs for things that are beautiful and moving to her.”
Reflecting on their experience filming in Vilnius and whether it changed any assumptions about what smaller European film hubs are capable of delivering internationally, the creators commented: „We knew we needed to shoot Star City in Eastern Europe, but having shot For All Mankind in Los Angeles we were concerned initially with how our style of production would translate to Lithuania. We were almost immediately put at ease as Gary Tuck and Lineta Miseikyte of Baltic Film and the brilliant Locations Manager Jonas Spokas, who toured us around Vilnius for our initial scout. With their command of production and the area we knew we would be in good hands. And once we started pre-production and then shooting, we were constantly impressed by how far above our expectation the crew went. We could not be more proud of the show and the amazing efforts that all of the Lithuanian crew put into it – the show is only as good as it is because of them.“
A large team of Lithuanian film professionals worked on the production of the series in Lithuania. Filming took place in collaboration with local film industry partners Baltic Film Services, location management was handled by Baltic Locations, and the Vilnius Film Office assisted in filming in public city spaces.
In recent years, Vilnius has increasingly become a destination for international film and television productions. The city continues to attract filmmakers thanks to its visual versatility, highly skilled film community, and production-friendly infrastructure capable of supporting large-scale international projects.
The screening of “Star City” in Vilnius became not only a symbolic presentation of the series, but also an opportunity to highlight the contribution of Lithuanian film professionals to high-profile international productions.
Photos by Ieva Kaunaitė
