Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

TIFF Cinematheque

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Discover the wild worlds of Soviet sci-fi in this mixture of acknowledged classics, exotic esoterica and outright pulp from the former Eastern bloc. Bearded ladies, post-apocalyptic wastelands, robot companions, vampire cars and outbursts of random dancing await. Join us, comrades!

The Cold War was the unquestioned Golden Age of science fiction, as the utopian hopes and apocalyptic fears of the post-Hiroshima age, and the rising tensions of a world dominated by two great superpowers, seeped into all avenues of popular culture. Yet while we are well-acquainted with the forms these futuristic fantasies took in the United States — from the energetic exploitation fare of Roger Corman to the philosophical speculation of Stanley Kubrick to the pop-culture mythmaking of George Lucas — and such other Western-aligned nations as the UK (Doctor Who, the Quatermass series) and Japan (Godzilla and his rubber-suited kin, the sunny Astro Boy and the dystopian Akira), we are considerably less familiar with the science-fiction offerings from the other side of the Iron Curtain.

The science-fiction tradition in the one-time Eastern Bloc was as rich and varied as anywhere in the Western world, and the region's film output is every bit as diverse as our own, ranging from art-house fare to populist comedies, hilariously cheesy space operas and grand adventures. And while there are some instances of open propaganda, there are also strains of sly satire — as well as evidence that the camp and excess of the swinging sixties didn't completely pass the Soviet world by. We present here a broad range of Soviet-era science fiction, a mix of acknowledged classics and outright pulp from Russia, the former Czechoslovakia, Poland and Estonia. Bearded ladies, post-apocalyptic wastelands, robot companions, vampire cars and outbursts of random dancing all wait within. Join us, comrades! — Todd Brown

Thanks to Daniele Terzoli, Trieste Science + Fiction Festival.

Films in Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain

    • Solaris

    • A scientist investigating mysterious happenings at a derelict space station discovers that the planet below can transform memories into physical form — and bring the dead back to life. Andrei Tarkovsky’s philosophical sci-fi masterpiece was the Russian answer to Kubrick’s 2001.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • In the Dust of the Stars
    • Im Staub der Sterne

    • The film I KILLED EINSTEIN, GENTLEMEN, originally scheduled to screen on Friday, Jan. 20 at 9 PM, has been rescheduled to Friday, Feb. 10 at 9 PM. The film IN THE DUST OF STARS, originally scheduled to screen Friday, Feb. 10 at 9 PM, will screen Friday, Jan. 20th at 9 PM. We apologize for any inconvenience.

      Space travel is swingin’ in this campy, psychedelic sci-fi head-trip from East Germany, as a starship crew is seduced by the far-out music (and T&A) at a decadent space tyrant’s intergalactic pad.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • Stalker

    • In a treacherous post-apocalyptic wasteland known only as "The Zone," a mystically gifted "stalker" guides two intellectuals to a mysterious room that it is rumoured can make wishes come true. The great Andrei Tarkovsky’s second sci-fi outing after the classic Solaris is an enigmatic and strikingly stylized odyssey into a world at once alien and disturbingly familiar.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • Dead Mountaineer's Hotel
    • "Hukkunud Alpinisti" hotell

    • A hard-boiled cop investigates supernatural occurrences at an isolated mountain inn in this sly sci-fi take on the traditional film noir.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • Test Pilot Pirxa
    • Test pilota Pirxa

    • A steely space pilot defies corporate interests that want to replace human space crews with lifelike robots in this gripping space adventure that intriguingly anticipates Blade Runner.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • Ferat Vampire
    • Upír z Feratu

    • A doctor discovers that an auto company’s new race car prototype is fuelled by the blood of its drivers in this bizarre sci-fi horror thriller laced with anti-corporate satire and devilish black humour.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • The Great Space Voyage
    • Bolshoe kosmicheskoe puteshestvie

    • Three schoolchildren are forced to take command of a space flight when their adult commander is quarantined in this inspirational sci-fi adventure.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • Who Wants to Kill Jessie?
    • Kdo chce zabít Jessii?

    • A gorgeous comic-strip heroine is catapulted into the real world — along with the dastardly cartoon villains out to get her — in this hilarious, visually inventive postmodern comedy.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen
    • Zabil jsem Einsteina, pánové

    • The film I KILLED EINSTEIN, GENTLEMEN, originally scheduled to screen on Friday, Jan. 20 at 9 PM, has been rescheduled to Friday, Feb. 10 at 9 PM. The film IN THE DUST OF STARS, originally scheduled to screen Friday, Feb. 10 at 9 PM, will screen Friday, Jan. 20th at 9 PM. We apologize for any inconvenience.

      After a nuclear explosion renders all the world’s women infertile (and bearded!), a bold band of scientists determines to travel back in time to 1911 and assassinate Albert Einstein before he can concoct the theories that helped create the Bomb. This wild, cheerfully lowbrow Czech sci-fi comedy plays like Sleeper/Bananas-era Woody Allen.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • Eolomea

    • An unidentified signal emanating from a far-distant star system embroils a scientist and an embittered cosmonaut in a high-stakes conspiracy in this engrossing sci-fi mystery.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • The Silent Star
    • Der schweigende Stern

    • A multinational crew discovers remnants from an ancient civilization on Venus, and evidence of a terrible catastrophe that could portend doom for the Earth, in this pioneering communist sci-fi saga from East Germany.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • To the Stars by Hard Ways
    • Cherez ternii k zvezdam

    • A beautiful female cyborg seeks the help of earthlings to rescue her home planet in this deliciously campy space opera filled with cosmic mercenaries, midget dictators and space-age leisure-wear outfits.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • Ikarie XB-1

    • The crew of a starship on a year-long exploratory mission in the Alpha Centauri system discovers that the greatest dangers lie within in this engrossing adventure, arguably the high point of the space-opera tradition in Czech science fiction.

    • No events playing at this time.
    • Golem

    • A manufactured man searches for his origins in a grim post-apocalyptic world in this futuristic, strikingly surreal re-imagining of the classic monster tale.

    • No events playing at this time.