Aelita, The Queen of Mars is a socialist science fiction film, one of the earliest cinematic depictions of space travel, directed by Yakov Protazanov in 1924. Featuring interplanetary travel, romance and murder and set in part against spectacular constructivist backdrop, this silent film also captures the feel and detail of everyday Soviet life in Moscow.

Contemporaneous with Vsevolod Meyerhold’s theatrical innovations which form the basis of Jesse Jones’ exhibition The Struggle Against Ourselves, Protaz’s film was later disowned by the Soviet Government and little seen until after the Cold War.