Podcast: STORIES FROM THE EASTERN WEST #30 - LUNAR

How a cult filmmaker embarked on the most ambitious sci-fi production in the history of Polish cinema - and how it all came crashing down.
In the summer of 1976, the late Polish film director Andrzej Żuławski, responsible for infamous cult classics such as The Devil (1972) and Possession (1981), was given a green light to shoot the most expensive film ever made in Poland. On the Silver Globe was meant to be a massively ambitious science-fiction epic set on the Moon, showing the birth of a new civilisation, and produced without the benefit of modern special effects. But things didn’t quite go to plan.
The huge ambitions of a temperamental and demanding director combined with the financial and technological realities of 1970s Poland meant that the production faced an uphill battle from the first day of shooting. But with over 70% of the film already shot, and the end almost in sight, On the Silver Globe unexpectedly fell victim to the whims of a Communist Party hardliner and was relegated to cinematic history.
How do you make a space opera without Hollywood special effects in a state-run economy? What were the crew doing in Mongolia? Who was Janusz Wilhelmi and why did he shut down the production? And does the story ultimately have a happy ending?
More about the episode at Culture.pl:
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Episode credits:
Written & produced by Peter Wolodzko
Edited by Wojtek Oleksiak & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Stories from the Eastern West is a podcast from Culture.pl telling little-known histories from Central & Eastern Europe that changed our world. It was brought to you by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.