On The Silver Globe

Director: Andrzej Żuławski

1988 / 166min / 4K DCP

Begun in 1976 as the most ambitious production in the history of Polish cinema, shut down the following year by the Ministry of Culture, and completed by Żuławski after spending over a decade in exile, the cursed On the Silver Globe is a blessing to fans of far-out cinema. Adapting his great-uncle Jerzy Żuławski’s 1903 novel, Żuławski the Younger forges a sci-fi saga about astronauts stranded on the moon who’ve set out to build a new society that thrives for decades, only for its development to be sidetracked by the arrival of Marek (Andrzej Seweryn), a would-be messiah from back on Earth who promises emancipation from the indigenous Szerns, but may have dubious motives in mind. (This whiff of skeptical allegory concerning millenarian prophets may explain the Polish government’s objections to the film.) “Żuławski’s masterpiece.” —J. Hoberman, The New York Times

This 4K digital restoration was undertaken from the 35mm original camera negative by Fixafilm Sp. z o.o.