DIRECTOR: Andrei Tarkovsky
PRODUCER: Vyacheslav Tarasov
PRODUCTION CO: Mosfilm
SCREENPLAY: Friedrich Gorenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky, based on the novel by Stanislaw Lem
PHOTOGRAPHY: Vadim Yusov
EDITOR: Lyudmila Feiginova
MUSIC: Eduard Artemyev
WITH: Donatas Banionis (Kris Kelvin), Raimundas Banionis (young Kelvin), Natalya Bondarchuk (Hari), Jüri Järvet (Dr Snaut), Vladislav Dvorzhetsky (Henri Burton), Nikolai Grinko (Kelvin's father), Olga Barnet (Kelvin's mother), Anatoly Solonitsyn (Dr Sartorius), Sos Sargsyan (Dr Gibarian)

FESTIVALS: Cannes, Chicago

REVIEW

“No screen adaptation of Polish author Stanisław Lem’s work is more celebrated than Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris. Based on Lem’s 1961 novel, the Russian director’s metaphysical epic is often described as the ​'Soviet 2001'—although ​'Star Trek'as written by Dostoevsky' (Jay Scott, The Globe and Mail) also fits.

A psychologist named Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) is sent to investigate strange occurrences on a space station orbiting Solaris, a mysterious planet with a sentient Ocean. There, Kelvin is confronted by the incarnation of Hari (Natalya Bondarchuk), his long-dead wife, and forced to relive the greatest moral failures of his past. A brilliant exploration of love, truth, and what it means to be human, Solaris is magnificently mounted in widescreen and colour. ​

​“Solaris ranks with the best of Tarkovsky’s work, which is to say it ranks with the best movies produced at any time” (Scott).”

– The Cinematheque

“A sci-fi masterpiece … A great examination of the limits of rationalism and the perverse power of even the most ill-fated love.” – Salman Rushdie

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

New Plymouth
​Wednesday, 13 March, 6.00pm

​Canterbury     
Monday, 06 May, 7.00pm

​​Dunedin   
Wednesday, 15 May, 7.30pm

Auckland  
Monday, 27 May, 6.00pm

​Whanganui  
Monday, 10 June, 7.00pm

​Hamilton 
Monday, 24 June, 6.30pm

Palmerston North
Wednesday, 03 July, 6.00pm

​​​Wellington   
Monday, 21 October, 6:15pm
70s SCI-FI >>