Solaris (1972)

Science fiction

Mosfilm, 1972

Running time: 80 + 89 minutes, colour

Director Andrei Tarkovsky

Screenplay: Friedrich Gorenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky

Cinematography: Vadim Yusov

Composer Eduard Artemiev

Cast: Donatas Banionis, Natalia Bondarchuk, Jüri Järvet, Vladislav Dvorzhetsky, Nikolai Grinko, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Sos Sarkisian, Tamara Ogorodnikova

Based on Stanis?aw Lem’s science fiction novel

Box-office: 10.5 + 10.5 million viewers

Awards: Cannes 72, Karlovy Vary 72

Based on Stanis?aw Lem’s novel Solaris.

Many generations of scientists have unsuccessfully attempted to solve the secret of the enigmatic planet of Solaris. The planet is covered in a liquid called the Ocean – an enormous, living brain – but all attempts to establish contact with it have ended in failure.

Kris Kelvin, a psychologist, is sent on an expedition to Solaris to evaluate the situation, but what he finds when he gets there fails to fit into even the most fantastic notions.

After one of the experiments, the Ocean starts sending the expedition members subconscious memories in physical forms. Kris, for example, sees his wife, Hari, who committed suicide several years ago following a domestic dispute.

The director brilliantly combines a tense and gripping plot with several important moral and spiritual questions related to our age of technical progress.