Gagarine, a fresh and poignant feature debut by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh (co-written with Benjamin Charbit), is about the beauty and strength of community, embodied here by the residents of the Cité Gagarine housing project on the outskirts of Paris.

Filmed just prior to the demolition of Gagarine in 2019 and with the participation of its residents, the movie follows one young tenant, Youri (Alséni Bathily, making his screen debut) – named for the complex’s namesake, Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin – as he fights to preserve his home and community. The filmmakers combine stark realism with dreamy fantasy to portray the world of Gagarine and the imagination of Youri, a serious, science-minded teen who dreams of being an astronaut. His apartment is full of hi-tech devices fashioned from scavenged materials, including a tricked-out telescope through which he scans the heavens.

Along with his intrepid, enterprising friends Houssam (Jamil McCraven) and fellow gearhead Diana (the luminous Lyna Khoudri), Youri rummages for electrical parts to fix the building’s wiring prior to an inspection. He hopes to forestall Gagarine’s imminent destruction and the relocation of residents, who come from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds. A valued member of the community, Youri creates a special canopy through which his neighbors come together to watch a solar eclipse; it’s a particularly lovely scene underscored by eerie music. Some residents, however (including Houssam’s father), are happy to abandon Gagarine and work to hasten its demise.

Moody, dark and graceful, with an eclectic soundtrack, Gagarine features vignettes of daily life along with actual footage of the site. Included are real scenes of Gagarine’s groundbreaking (attended by Gagarin himself) and its much-celebrated opening in 1963, which was was met with much hope and optimism for a new way of life.

Despite Youri’s efforts, the complex is scheduled for demolition and residents begin moving out, including Fari (Farida Rahouadj), a Turkish woman who knew his parents when they first moved in and serves as a sort of surrogate mom (Youri’s own mother has virtually abandoned  him). Diana, with whom Youri has enjoyed a budding romance, eventually moves on with her Roma family, as well. Soon he’s the only one left in the massive building, aside from a hyper young drug dealer who pops in occasionally until he’s accosted by the site’s demolition workers.

Youri, who knows the building inside and out, manages to elude workers and authorities. He gains access to abandoned apartments, and rigs a kind of earthbound space station full of elaborate contraptions built from salvaged circuitry and other parts. His environment and the movie itself become progressively more surreal.

Eventually and sadly, the inevitable finally occurs and Youri himself transitions to a different place. The film’s conclusion, which involves a kind of reunion among former residents, is moving and remarkably beautiful.

Off-kilter, raw and imaginative, Gagarine is a truly unique portrayal of how a community can bring and hold people together, even — or maybe especially — in less-than-ideal circumstances. It’s a lyrical and powerful meditation on our shared humanity.

Gagarine opens on Friday, April 1, at the Quad Cinema in New York.

—Marina Zogbi