STRANGE NEW WORLDS (1960-1976)

Three years before all the political lines in the sands had been drawn between East and West, the DEFA (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), a state-owned film studi,o was established in the Soviet occupied zone of Germany. Up until its dissolution in 1992, it had produced hundreds of films spanning many genres. Eureka Entertainment in the UK has acquired four standout titles from DEFA’s contribution to science-fiction, The Silent Star (1960), Signals: A Space Adventure (1970), Eolomea (1972), and In the Dust of the Stars (1976); packaged together in a box a set appropriately named, Strange New Worlds – Available now on Blu-ray.

Throughout this collection, there is a positive representation of a unified world in which all nations work together for peace and prosperity. Despite the global animosity of the time, I’m sure many welcomed this notion and enjoyed watching such fictional aspirations of society. The Silent Star borrows heavily from the Hollywood sphere of big-screen space travel. It bears a resemblance to Forbidden Planet as our Cosmonaut heroes seek out intelligent life on Venus, only to find they were undone by their own technology and the power they harnessed, serving as a sombre warning to humankind during the nuclear age. It’s the best title in the set due to its pondering nature, and the film is simply entertaining.

Signals: A Space Adventure more or less has no plot or any linear storytelling. There’s an episode of The Simpsons in which Itchy and Scratchy move to a rival program, so it’s replaced with the Eastern European equivalent, Worker and Parasite. If you’ve seen it, then that’s the vibe of Signals. One moment we’re floating in the silent majesty of deep space, then we’re on a beach back on Earth playing footsies while in a handstand.

Eolomea and In the Dust of the Stars share a more common language, and both offer mystery and intrigue, from the disappearance of eight space cargo-ships to a secret project, the titular Eolomea. However, our minds are warped by an oppressive planetary ruler in the latter title, where a party answering a distress call to TEM 4 finds themselves unable to leave. It echoes the Star Trek episode Shore Leave but has a more serious tone. I notice that all the films in Strange New Worlds seem five or so years behind with the times in regard to style and current mood. The Silent Star feels like something more common in early 50s cinema, whereas the LSD energy of In the Dust of the Stars looks like it belongs back in the ‘Summer of Love’.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Limited Collector’s Edition Box Set [2000 copies]

Limited edition hardcase featuring new artwork by Carly A-F

Limited edition 60-page collector’s book featuring an introduction by Mariana Ivanova, Academic Director of the DEFA Film Library, and new writing by DEFA historians Sebastian Heiduschke, Sonja Fritzsche and Evan Torner

All four films presented in 1080p HD from restorations by the DEFA Foundation

Reversible inner sleeve artwork featuring new designs for each film by Carly A-F

Signals: A Space Adventure presented from a new 6K scan of the original 70mm camera negative

Eolomea presented from a 4K scan of the original 70mm camera negative

The Silent Star and In the Dust of the Stars presented from 2K scans of the original 35mm camera negatives

The Robot (Klaus Georgi, 1968) – animated short produced by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film

Jana and the Little Star (Christl Wiemer, 1971) – animated short produced by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film

Love 2002 (Joachim Hellwig, 1972) – documentary short on the future of love in East Germany produced by the DEFA Studio for Newsreels and Documentary Films

Optional English subtitles on all features and shorts, newly revised for this release

New audio commentaries on all four features by Rolland Man and presented by David Melville Wingrove

Marx Attacks – new video essay by Daniel Jonah Wolpert on In the Dust of the Stars

Blast Off – new interview with science fiction scholar Mark Bould

Red Skies – new interview with Soviet cinema expert Claire Knight

British Filmmaker Visits DEFA (1959) – archival newsreel documenting Anthony Asquith’s visit to the set of The Silent Star

A Rocket in the Soviet Zone (1959) – archival newsreel covering the making of The Silent Star

Cosmonaut Dreams – archival featurette on the making of Eolomea, featuring special-effects cameraman Kurt Marks, costume designer Barbara Müller-Braumann and technician Jan-Peter Schmarje

Dusting Off After 30 Years – archival interview with Peter Suring, director of photography on In the Dust of the Stars

Original theatrical trailers

Eureka has included a small library of bonus content, consisting largely of audio commentaries, archival material, and a selection of NEW video essays that help paint a picture of the time during which the films were made. Claire Knight (Soviet cinema expert) provides much insight and outlines some of the social themes reflective of life behind the Iron Curtain, while Mark Bould speaks more broadly about science-fiction cinema and the varying influential factors that propel the East to explore “Strange New Worlds”.

VIDEO AND AUDIO

Image quality is fairly consistent throughout the four features, all of which share more or less the same colour palette, which resembles Technicolour but leans towards being more brown, orange and yellow dominant. They’re not the sharpest transfers, but considering the obscurity of East German cinema, they’re impressive, with each coming from NEW scans in 2K, 4K and 6K from camera negatives. However, there is a very notable issue with the last title in the set, In the Dust of the Stars, where it appears the characteristics of a degrading film negative have been captured; the effect of which looks almost psychedelic in nature. I noticed it almost immediately, but assumed it was deliberate to enhance the alien world, and frankly, it didn’t feel out of place considering how strange the film was overall.

Surprisingly, the audio options are not limited to Mono, except for In the Dust of the Stars, whereas The Silent Star and Signals: A Space Adventure have optional HD stereo and DTS Surround, while Eolomea only features standard stereo, but all of course in original German with English subtitles. There isn’t a discernible difference in honesty with each film, but they do not lack volume.

I love the artwork of Strange New Worlds with its signature image of an impractical but futuristic rocket ship blasting up towards the cosmos. There’s a familiarity to it, but at the same time hits a different key, which is East German cinema. Perhaps starting with something more grounded before exploring space would have helped with my experience, but this set is a trip well worth taking.

STRANGE NEW WORLDS
(1960-1976, director: Various)