Series Site
A giant of Polish literature, and of science fiction writing worldwide – though in fact his work transcends the constraints of any particular genre – Stanisław Lem (1921-2006) produced dozens upon dozens of novels, stories, and essays throughout his nearly 60-year career. Best known for the writings that qualified, at least ostensibly, as science fiction, his body of work is dizzyingly multi-faceted, encompassing memoirs, reminiscences of his wartime experiences, and philosophical texts, while the science fiction narratives themselves often take wildly experimental forms and extend freely into the realms of philosophy and satire.
However his work is characterized, one thing is for sure: Lem’s novels and stories have inspired (and continue to inspire) numerous filmmakers, with cinematic adaptations emerging from throughout the world, often helmed by some of the most important filmmakers past and present: from Andrei Tarkovsky and Andrzej Wajda to the Quay Brothers and Steven Soderbergh.
Organized in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, this series offers a generous selection of these Lem-inspired cinematic works. Anchored by three different versions of SOLARIS – Tarkovsky’s and Soderbergh’s celebrated films are joined by an earlier 1968 Russian television adaptation that has rarely if ever screened in the U.S. – the selection also includes an additional ten films whose diverse range of genres, tones, and stylistic approaches are entirely appropriate to Lem’s own body of work.
Immediately following the Stanisław Lem film series, Anthology will present a similar series devoted to the Russian science-fiction writers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky.