Polish Cinematic Dystopias

Abstract

POLISH CINEMATIC DYSTOPIAS: METAPHORS OF LIFE UNDER COMMUNISM – AND BEYOND In this essay I intend to identify and discuss the main features of dystopias, as represented in Polish cinema during the communist period. I will limit my analysis to the five most distinguished Polish science fiction films, produced in the relatively short time span between the late 1970s and mid-1980s: four by Piotr Szulkin: Golem (1979), Wojna światów - następne stulecie (War of the Worlds - Next Century, 1981), O-bi, o-ba. Koniec cywilizacji (O-bi, O-ba. The End of Civilization, 1985) Ga, ga, chwała bohaterom (Ga, Ga. Glory of the Heroes, 1986) and one by Juliusz Machulski: Seksmisja (Sex Mission, 1983). It is widely accepted that these films criticised communist rule; the image of life in a distant future or on a far off planet served as a useful metaphor of life in communist Poland (Jankun 1984; Zarębski 1984;...