STRANGE NEW WORLDS: SCIENCE FICTION AT DEFA | Blu-ray | Eureka Entertainment

GERMAN | SPACE SCI-FI | SCI-FI

Quadruple bill of sci-fi adventures made by DEFA, East Germany's state-owned film studio. 'The Silent Star' (1960) is based on the novel 'The Astronauts' by Stanislaw Lem. When an alien object from Venus is found in the Gobi Desert, attempts to contact the planet prove unsuccessful and so the Soviet spaceship Kosmoskrator is sent to investigate. However, as the Kosmokrator nears Venus, the crew decode a message revealing hostile rather than peaceful intentions. In 'Signals: A Space Adventure' (1970) a research vessel disappears in space and the Laika and its crew are sent in search of it. As they near the empty wreck, they receive strange radio signals and fear what they may encounter. In 'Eolomea' (1972) the disappearance of several ships and their crews from the Margo space station causes concern. A group of scientists believe that aliens from another planet they call Eolomea may be attempting to make contact and embark on an unsanctioned mission to reach them. Finally, in 'In the Dust of the Stars' (1976), the crew of the Cyrano respond to a distress signal on the planet TEM 4 but its ruler insists it was a mistake. When Suko (Alfred Struwe), the ship's nagivator, discovers that captives are forced to work as slaves in the mines, will the crew of the Cyrano leave or aid their fight for freedom?

Special Features

Eureka Entertainment Masters of Cinema Limited Edition Three-Disc Blu-ray Box Set (Region B); all four films presented in 1080p HD from restorations by the DEFA Foundation; Signals: A Space Adventure from a new 6K scan of the original 70mm camera negative; Eolomea from a 4K scan of the original 70mm camera negative; The Silent Star and In the Dust of the Stars from 2K scans of the original 35mm camera negatives; optional English subtitles on all features and shorts, newly revised for this release; limited edition hardcase featuring new artwork by Carly A-F; reversible inner sleeve artwork featuring new designs for each film 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; limited to 2000 copies;

Films included: The Silent Star (1960); Signals: A Space Adventure (1970); Eolomea (1972); In the Dust of the Stars (1976);

Special features: new audio commentaries on all four features by Rolland Man and presented by David Melville Wingrove; Blast Off – new interview with science fiction scholar Mark Bould (24 mins); Red Skies – new interview with Soviet cinema expert Claire Knight (32 mins); Marx Attacks – new video essay by Daniel Jonah Wolpert on In the Dust of the Stars (15 mins); 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 (19 mins); Dusting Off After 30 Years – archival interview with Peter Suring, director of photography on In the Dust of the Stars (16 mins); The Robot (Klaus Georgi, 1968) – animated short produced by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film (15 mins); 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

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