Featured Image Credit: Eureka Entertainment
Topics: Film and TV
Callum Jones
The director of a movie that was so controversial the government stepped in to stop production had a genius idea to ensure audiences watched it.
Polish director Andrzej Zulawski is known for his work on movies like Possession (1981) and Fidelity (2000). But back in the 1970s he was still trying to make a name for himself following his hit 1975 film That Most Important Thing: Love.
This wasn't helped by the fact that filming for his follow-up, a sci-fi epic, ground to halt in 1977 due to censorship by the Polish government.
Starring Andrzej Seweryn, Jerzy Trela and Grazyna Dylag, Zulawski's movie was titled On The Silver Globe, and told the story of a team of astronauts who form a society after landing on a new planet.
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The group come to learn that children born there grow up a lot faster than they do on Earth. Before the last of the original astronauts dies, he sends footage of his experiences back to Earth, where it's found by a scientist named Marek.
Having recently been left by his wife, Marek takes it upon himself to see life on the planet for himself. When he arrives, he's treated as a messiah.
Sounds intriguing for sure, but the film is said to have suffered some budgetary issues, but the biggest barrier to its creation is believed to have come from the Polish government at the time, as they allegedly weren't happy with some of the film's themes being critical of the communist establishment.
Zulawski was adamant the world needed to see some of his creation however, so ten years later filled in some of the missing scenes from his movie with shots of everyday Polish life.
When he screened the movie at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, he provided live narration of what was supposed to be happening during those scenes.
Escape to the Silver Globe, a 2021 documentary, looked into the movie's creation and the controversy that surrounded it.
As per Variety, director of the doc, Kuba Mikurda, said: "To any cinephile, there is nothing more exciting than an unfinished or unmade film.
"Everyone had a theory. Some said it was just too subversive, others blamed its religious content. To me, it was a display of power by the new minister.
"He knew that if he would ‘hit’ this film, everyone would take notice. Interestingly enough, there are those who claim that Zulawski was relieved by it."