The hub for Russian and Soviet space explorers for decades, Baikonur is now raking on a new role as German art house director Viet Helmer has brought his cast and crew to the Star City to shoot his new movie.

“Baikonour” is a love story with a twist, featuring a French cosmonaut who blasts off from the cosmodrome as a space tourist only to crash land upon re-entry.

“The capsule lands in the Kazakh steppe and is found by this young boy because the rescue team is late,” Director Viet Helmer told RT. “The young boy takes the girl to his yurt because she is in a coma. He tries to wake her and when she wakes up, he tells her she’s his wife because she can’t remember anything.”

Regardless of how the plot sits with viewers, the film is set to blast into the record books upon its launch due to its historic set.

“I’m really proud to be shooting the first film in Baikonour,” Helmer said. “There were documentary crews in star city, but we are the first to bring to there a real movies set.”

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The backdrop has allowed the cast to sample some of the rigors budding cosmonauts must put themselves through.

“The most exciting shoot was underwater when the actress had to wear a suit to go underwater and the centrifuge,” film producer Anna Katchko told RT.

“The underwater training was incredible,” actress Marie de Villepin said. “We were in those massive suits that the cosmonauts actually train in. It is super heavy and you can barely move.”

The two lead actors have also had to get to understand the type of G force only experienced as you hurtle to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Back on earth, “Baikonour” is set for release in the summer of 2011.