Strange New Worlds: Science Fiction at DEFA Boxset Review

By Sarah Morgan

It might not have the catchiest name there’s ever been, but what it lacks in brevity, this boxset more than makes up for in style.

In case you’re unaware of it, DEFA was East Germany’s state-owned film studio, which made movies from its formation in 1946 to its dissolution in 1992. During the intervening 48 years, it churned out a variety of productions, from fairytale adaptations and dramas to crime thrillers and even Westerns.

Science fiction also proved popular; four of their most groundbreaking titles, all lovingly restored from their original 70mm negative, are included here.

“Bizarre offering”

Getting the ball rolling is 1960’s The Silent Star, adapted from The Astronaut, a novel written by Stanislaw Lem, whose best-known work is Solaris. Here, the discovery of a mysterious intergalactic object leads to a group of scientists and linguists to embark on a dangerous quest to learn more about its origins.

That’s followed by 1970’s Signals: A Space Adventure, in which a rescue mission is interrupted by a series of strange transmissions. Eolomea, released two years later, focuses on the disappearance of eight spacecraft; a science officer is determined to find out where they have gone – but the information comes with a personal twist.

Finally, In the Dust of the Stars, released in 1976, is a bizarre offering involving a group of cosmonauts investigating a distress signal sent by a distant planet. On their arrival, they discover it’s all a trap, and they come face-to-face with an oppressed underclass and its debauched rulers. The imagery depicted here has to be seen to be believed – it’s as bizarre and eye-catching as anything that pops up in some of the US’s most outlandish counterculture films of the 1960s.

“Fascinating”

As you would expect from movies made by a communist state during the Cold War, the plots are full of socialist symbolism and undercurrents, but that just makes them more fascinating than some of their Hollywood counterparts. The production design is also absolutely stunning; the boxset is worth viewing for that alone.

Giving viewers plenty of much-needed context are various documentaries, including Red Skies, which features an interview with Soviet cinema expert Claire Knight.

If your sci-fi tastes don’t extend much beyond Star Wars, Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick is said to have been influenced by DEFA’s projects), then prepare to have your mind blown by four journeys that are out of this world.