Directed by Andrzej Żuławski | Poland | 166 mins
In 1975, emotional provocateur director Andrzej Żuławski (Possession) began work on a magnum opus based on The Lunar Trilogy, a series written by his uncle Jerzy. Produced under the auspices of the government-run film industry of communist-era Poland, vast financial and creative resources were spent on set design, location work and costumes, but when the government viewed the bizarre and surreal content, they believed the movie was a subversive attack on government policy and ordered it abandoned. In 1987, a rehabilitated Zulawski returned to the film and finished it for release using voice-over to fill in holes in the story.
A group of freedom-seeking astronauts crash land on an irradiated alien world and establish a new civilization. The film follows generations of their descendants as the fledgling society morphs into a pagan phantasmagoria, practicing elemental tribal rituals in order to transform humanity into a new philosophical paradigm. All the while, the new tribe must fend off attacks from the Szerns; bird-like and psychically powerful indigenous inhabitants of the planet. An incomplete film, On The Silver Globe fuses restored original footage with documentary content to forge an unforgettably bizarre blend of image and sound, so strangely otherworldly it might as well have been beamed in from a parallel universe.
Rating: 18A for Gory Scenes.
Part of our Operatic Cinematic Series.
In the spirit of respect, reciprocity and truth, we honour and acknowledge that this screening takes place on Moh’kinsstis and the traditional Treaty 7 territory, as well as the oral practices of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. We acknowledge that this territory is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. Finally, we acknowledge all Nations, Indigenous and non, who live, work and play, as well as help steward this land, honour and celebrate this territory.