You’ve heard the rumors. You’ve seen the grainy YouTube clips of people claiming NASA didn't actually land on the moon. But then there is the film Houston, We Have a Problem!—a 2016 release by Slovenian director Žiga Virc that basically throws a hand grenade into the middle of the Cold War history books. It’s wild. It claims that Yugoslavia, under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito, developed a secret multi-billion dollar space program and then sold the whole thing to the Americans because the CIA couldn't keep up with the Soviets.
Honestly, it sounds like the greatest historical scoop of the century.
But there’s a massive catch. The film isn't a "documentary" in the way your history teacher would define it. It’s "docu-fiction." Or "mockumentary." Or, as Virc himself has hinted, a study in how easily we believe things if the editing is slick enough. People still argue about this movie today because it blends real archival footage with total fabrications so seamlessly that you start doubting your own memory of the 1960s.
The Myth of the Yugoslav Space Program
The core premise of Houston, We Have a Problem! is that Yugoslavia was the secret third player in the Space Race. According to the film, Tito’s engineers found the lost papers of Herman Potočnik Noordung—a real-life Slovenian rocket pioneer—and used them to build a functioning space lab in an underground bunker called Object 505, located at the Željava Air Base.
The story goes that JFK bought the tech in the early '60s for billions of dollars to save NASA’s reputation. When the tech supposedly failed to work, the Americans got pissed. They wanted their money back. Tito, being the master of the middle ground, had to balance the fury of the White House with the prying eyes of the Kremlin. It’s a gripping narrative. It explains why Yugoslavia was so wealthy compared to other communist states. It explains why Tito was treated like a rockstar in Washington.
Except most of it is built on a foundation of "what if."
Wait. Stop for a second.
If you look at the Željava Air Base today, it’s a crumbling, eerie ruin on the border of Croatia and Bosnia. It was a real, massive underground facility. That part isn't a lie. Virc uses that physical reality to anchor the fiction. He introduces us to Ivan Pavić, a supposed engineer who was sent to the US in secret to work for NASA. Pavić is the emotional heart of the movie, visiting his own grave in Yugoslavia because his family thought he was dead for decades.
It’s heartbreaking. It’s also fake.
Why the Film Still Confuses Everyone
The genius—or the problem, depending on who you ask—is the presence of Slavoj Žižek. The philosopher pops up throughout the film, sitting in a dark room, delivering meta-commentary on the nature of truth. He basically tells the audience to their face that they are being lied to. He talks about how we believe what we want to believe.
Yet, even with a world-famous philosopher literally saying "this is about the perception of truth," people still walk away from Houston, We Have a Problem! thinking Yugoslavia actually had a moon rocket.
Why? Because the archival footage is incredible. You see Tito meeting Kennedy. You see the Apollo 11 crew visiting Belgrade. You see real technical blueprints. Virc edited these real events into a fictional context. It’s a masterclass in "fake news" before that term became a daily headache.
The film operates on a level of sophisticated irony. It’s not just a prank. It’s a critique of the Cold War era and the Tito mythos. For decades, the people of the former Yugoslavia lived in a state of curated reality. Tito was the "benevolent" dictator who kept the peace and the money flowing. The idea that he was a secret tech mogul fits the cultural ego of the region perfectly.
The "Case" for the Conspiracy
If you talk to people who believe the Houston, We Have a Problem! film is 100% factual, they usually point to three things.
One: The financial records. It’s a historical fact that Yugoslavia received massive amounts of financial aid from the US. Historians generally agree this was "hush money" to keep Tito from siding with the USSR. The film just rebrands it as a business transaction for rocket parts.
Two: Herman Potočnik. He was real. His book The Problem of Space Travel (1929) actually influenced NASA engineers. Virc takes this tiny grain of truth and grows an entire forest of lies around it.
Three: The "Pavić" character. Even though he’s an actor, his performance is so grounded and weary that he feels like every grandfather who was silenced by a communist regime.
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But let's be real. If Yugoslavia had the tech to put a man on the moon in 1961, they probably wouldn't have collapsed into a brutal civil war thirty years later. Or maybe they would have. That’s the "hook" that keeps you watching.
The Legacy of Object 505
The filming location of the Željava Air Base (Object 505) has seen a massive spike in "dark tourism" because of this movie. Urban explorers go there looking for signs of the space program. They find dark tunnels, rusted metal, and old plane hangars. There are no rocket boosters. There are no lunar modules.
The real tragedy is that the base was destroyed by the retreating Yugoslav People's Army in 1992 using 50 tons of explosives. Because the physical evidence was blown up, it creates a "blank space" where conspiracy theories can thrive. If you can't see what was in the tunnels, you can imagine anything was in the tunnels.
Virc knows this. He plays with the absence of evidence.
What to Take Away From the Experience
Look, if you're going to watch Houston, We Have a Problem!, don't go into it expecting a history lesson. Go into it as a psychological experiment. It’s a film about how we construct national identities.
The Yugoslavs wanted to believe they were more than just a small Balkan federation. They wanted to be global players. The Americans wanted to believe their success was purely domestic. The film mocks both sides.
It also serves as a warning. We live in an era of deepfakes and generative AI. This film did with manual editing in 2016 what software does automatically today. It proves that if you give people a narrative that confirms their biases, they will ignore the "mockumentary" disclaimer at the beginning of the credits.
Actionable Steps for the Curious Viewer
- Verify the "Noordung" Connection: Read about Herman Potočnik (Noordung). He really was a visionary. Separating his real science from the film's fiction is a great way to understand how docu-fiction works.
- Watch the Žižek Interviews: Don't skip the philosopher's segments. He is the key to the movie. If you ignore him, you're just watching a well-made conspiracy theory.
- Research the "Financial Aid" Reality: Look up the actual US-Yugoslavia trade agreements of the 1960s. The real story of how Tito played both sides of the Cold War is actually more interesting than the fake rocket story.
- Check the Credits: Watch the names. You’ll see the "engineer" Pavić is played by an actor. Seeing the mechanics of the fiction helps break the spell.
The Houston, We Have a Problem! film is essentially a mirror. It doesn't tell you much about NASA, but it tells you everything about how easily your brain can be tricked by a good story and a grainy filter. Stick to the facts, but enjoy the ride. Just don't bet your life savings on a Yugoslav moon base. It's not there.