The DEFA Sci-Fi Collection

For devoted science fiction fans, The DEFA Sci-Fi Collection certainly ranks as one of the more fascinating DVD releases in recent memory. All three of the films in this boxed set—produced at the DEFA Film Studios in East Germany—provide a rich opportunity to view fantastic tales of space travel through the socialist perspectives of East German filmmakers. In the case of The Silent Star (originally released in 1960), it's the first chance to see the original, unedited, and unaltered version of a film that was released in the U.S.—in truncated form—as First Spaceship on Venus. Easily the best of the trio, the plot revolves around a crew of space travelers sent to Venus to decipher a message discovered on Earth in the Gobi Desert. Based on a story by Polish science fiction author Stanislaw Lem (who also wrote Solaris), this was East Germany's first venture into science fiction, prompted by the U.S./U.S.S.R. space race that kicked off with the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellites in the late 1950s. Boasting dazzling production design and still-impressive special effects, The Silent Star deserves to be ranked among the better science fiction films of the period, and there can be no doubt that Stanley Kubrick watched it as part of his voluminous pre-production research on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Conversely, it's obvious that Kubrick's film influenced the other two titles included here, Eolomea (1972) and In the Dust of the Stars (1976). The former is another “alien message” story, this time involving a mysterious signal from outer space and eight Earth cargo ships that vanish without a trace from the sector of space where the Eolomea signal originated. The rather cheesy In the Dust of the Stars is a “groovy” adventure about the spaceship Cyrno's six-year journey to the planet TEM-4, where crewmembers discover strange goings-on in a utopian underworld in which everyone sports kitschy space-age disco fashions and liberal attitudes about commingling with Earthlings! While all three of these films lend themselves to academic study for their socialist overtones, they're equally enjoyable as escapist entertainment, and the abundant DVD bonus features (scholarly essays, vintage newsreels, interviews, artwork, and cast & director biographies) serve to place The DEFA Sci-Fi Collection in its proper sociopolitical context. Recommended. (J. Shannon)