Fantastic Week of Polish Cinema

Fantastic Week with of Polish Cinema, prepared by the Polish National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute, is a journey through classic Polish cinema devoted to science fiction, which was born “behind the Iron Curtain” after World War II. The carefully curated program, prepared on the occasion of the World Expo 2025, presents iconic film works inspired by science fiction from decades past as well as a contemporary take on the genre.

Polish genre cinema is an area of great interest. Science fiction cinema is doubly fascinating. One might assume that, in the conditions of Polish cinematography during the communist period (1945–1989), due to high production costs and lack of appropriate technological facilities, this genre would be difficult, if not impossible, to produce. Yet thanks to the creativity of Polish filmmakers, it developed remarkably well. The set of films selected for the Japanese audience shows the evolution of Polish science fiction and its varieties, largely shaped by the artistic personalities of their authors.

Its history began in the early 1960s on television, with short features made as part of the “science-fiction series” by the Small Film Forms Studio “Semafor.” The review includes three of them: Where Are You, Luisa? (1964) by Janusz Kubik and The Governor (1965) by Stanisław Kokesz—both based on the classic motif of contact with an extraterrestrial civilization and, through their open endings, disturbingly ambiguous, which is also a hallmark of good sci-fi. The third, The First Pavilion (1965) by Janusz Majewski, refers to the genre archetype of the mad scientist and his dangerous experiments.

The next films in the program are adaptations of works by the most famous and outstanding Polish science fiction writer—Stanisław Lem (1921–2006). The writer’s reluctance to see his books adapted for the screen was legendary, yet we chose those few he valued: Roly Poly (Przekładaniec, 1968) by Andrzej Wajda, based on the short story Do You Exist, Mr. Johns?, and Pilot Pirx’s Test (Test pilota Pirxa, 1978) by Marek Piestrak, based on The Inquest from the collection Tales of Pirx the Pilot. The first, a grotesque sci-fi comedy, is an intriguing exception within Wajda’s filmography. The second introduced to Poland the so-called “hard science fiction,” a branch emphasizing science and technology. In both, Lem’s philosophical reflection on the dangers of technological progress remains relevant, and what in the literary works and their adaptations was once fiction—a vision of the future (the development of transplantology, the creation of humanoid robots)—has today become science and reality. Both films are thus also examples of the prophetic potential of the genre.

The set also includes two unique works by two extraordinary filmmakers, among the most original in Polish cinema. Andrzej Żuławski’s On the Silver Globe (Na srebrnym globie, 1987)—a legendary, pioneering, philosophical sci-fi spectacle—tells the story of a new civilization in the making, which nevertheless repeats the mistakes of the old. Its production was halted by government order in 1977, and ten years later the director edited the existing footage, supplementing it with off-screen narration. This mutilated masterpiece continues to provoke speculation about what world science fiction might look like had Żuławski been able to fully realize his vision. O-bi, O-ba: The End of Civilization (O-bi, O-ba. Koniec cywilizacji, 1984) is also an entirely auteur film—the third (after Golem (1979), The War of the Worlds: Next Century (1981), and Ga, Ga: Glory to the Heroes (1985)) in Piotr Szulkin’s science fiction tetralogy, which used the genre in highly original ways. This dark, post-apocalyptic tale of a world after a nuclear war, where the remnants of humanity huddle under a concrete dome awaiting the Ark that is to take them away—read at the time of its premiere as an allegory of martial law in Poland (1981–1983)—today resonates as a more universal story, still captivating with its visual form.

The review closes with two acclaimed and award-winning films of recent years, visual essays that draw on sci-fi conventions and history in different but original ways. Photon (2017) by Norman Leto is a spectacular lesson, an avant-garde visual essay that makes knowledge about the phenomenon of life accessible. Solaris Mon Amour (2023) by Kuba Mikurda, inspired by Stanisław Lem’s novel Solaris, is an extraordinary found-footage documentary in a mesmerizing form, composed of archival materials from the Educational Film Studio. It is a visual, multi-layered essay—enriched with the director’s personal experience—reflecting on the workings of memory marked by the trauma of loss and the process of mourning.