Escape to the Silver Globe

The year 1975. After a few years of forced immigration, the young director Andrzej Żuławski returns to Poland. His situation in Poland is uncertain. What’s worse, his family disintegrates: his wife Małgorzata Braunek files for divorce. To strengthen his position Żuławski takes on a titanic task: he plans to make On the Silver Globe, a science fiction epic and the biggest film in the history of the Polish cinema. If he succeeds, he’ll win his place in the pantheon of the Polish directors. If he fails, his career in Poland will be over.

“On the Silver Globe” (1977/1987) could have become one of the most groundbreaking SF films ever made. The huge budget, thought-provoking script & bold artistic vision promised a masterpiece. Why, then, did the communist film industry bosses halt production two weeks before the shoot was completed? Was it for economic reasons? Political? Artistic? Personal?

What remains are the fragments of the film which still inspire audiences and the emotions of the crew, as strong today as they were forty years ago. This documentary is a story about the biggest mystery and the greatest, unfulfilled dream of Polish cinema.