Eolomea

This film is set in the future and space travel is much more commonplace. There are space stations and ships all throughout our solar system and there is a certain predictability about such travel. However, suddenly several ships disappear and are assumed lost. The space authorities on Earth are so concerned that they put a halt to all space travel until they can unravel this mystery--ships DON'T just disappear!

When most people think of sci-fi films, they usually don't think about East German. However, this nation produced several that were surprisingly good. Now you must understand, however, that this was NOT Hollywood. The budgets were not nearly as large and so the sets looked a little less sophisticated--but considering everything, they actually did a good job with the money they had. Quality-wise this film looks rather similar to ITV's "UFO" series from the same era.

As for the style film, I wasn't thrilled with how the plot bounced around so much--from the past to the present. It made the film a bit confusing at first. However, the plot itself was excellent--bringing up some wonderful points about just how far other intelligent life might be from our planet. Unlike most sci-fi movies where they go from one planetary system to another in what seems like minutes, this film realizes such a journey would really take several lifetimes. The utter loneliness and commitment to such a project was well captured here and the film really makes you think.

I recently discovered East German Sci-Fi, which didn't produce large numbers but a few very interesting films of that genre. One of these is Eolomea, rather good and in many ways cerebral film which requires all of viewer's attention. Story is carefully constructed and the sets aren't any worse then US films of that period such as "Silent Running,(not counting the "2001 Space Odyssey", of course, which is impressive even by today's standards). No, the sets and the effects are very decent, giving the budget and conditions of the production and if you compare it to big budget US flops such as "Marooned" it's on another level. Beautiful Dutch actress Cox Habbema is a real treat to watch, leading the international cast in which Ivan Andonov (a Bulgarian actor/director) and Vsevolod Sanayev, stand out. This is a first of three DEFA Sci-Fi Collection films, released by First Run Features, I had a chance to watch and it's pretty good.

Science fiction made in East Europe usually has different perspectives of life as Western science fiction. This is one example.

Not about technology or the future of our society, not even about the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (that it claims to be about), but about humans, their character traits, and their quest for the final frontier.

Accordingly the visual effects by Kurt Marks and Boris Trawkin, though awarded the Grand Prix of the UNIATEC, suffer in comparison with other fx-heavy movies made about the same time, like Academy Award-winning The Poseidon Adventure or Douglas Trumbull-directed Silent Running.

Still it creates a future that could happen any time, showing technology only in outer-space, and the stations in space and on asteroids look pretty much like good old MIR, the Russian space-station.

And yet it is rewarding for those who love the human desire for knowledge...

This was the third science fiction movie of the legendary DEFA studio and the first one to be based on an original concept (by Bulgarian Angel Vagenstein), starring Dutch Cox Habbema, Ivan Andonov (a director in his native Bulgaria) and Russian actor Vsevolod Sanayev (who died January in 1996), and German actors Rolf Hoppe and Wolfgang Greese.

A Communist East German production from 1972, this has all the cramped yet lived-in interior spaceship shots, the hardware is a mix of what you see in low budget sci-fi films from a decade earlier, plus attempts at some futurism, as interpreted by Communist central Europeans from the early 70's- throw in a dash of LSD psychedelia and Gerry Anderson, and you get the picture.

One unique thing about Eolomea is how it juxtaposes and treats two story lines- one is the space mission and the other is a romance. Both are intriguing and play off the other, there are some very scenic flashbacks, it is a delicate touch between the two and they blend wonderfully. You have the nuts and bolts plot- some spaceships disappear, and 'ground control' has to sleuth to get to the bottom of the issue. This investigation is spearheaded by a lovely female scientist... who meets a jaded carefree yet cynical space pilot named Dan, they share some time together. In the end , Dan plays a pivotal role in the finale, one that is bittersweet and quite sad to watch ... yet you sense a playful ruefulness to the concluding action/ decision. This is a thinking mans existential sci fi film, the theme of our aspiration to transcend our limits and the boundaries of knowledge is contrasted with the utter loneliness or even futility of the human dilemma, or, are all these things tied together? 6 + stars.

Communist East Germany. Great Filmmaking. Stellar technology and science fiction. Do these things seem to fit together in any conceivable way? No, they do not.

Why the DVD production company has the nerve to even compare "Eolomea" with the likes of Tarkovsky's "Solaris" or "2001" is beyond me. At best, this "lost classic" is more like an Austin Powers / Benny Hill rendition of a serious space epic, with a Burt Bacharach soundtrack and plenty of lava lamp space imagery. Movies like this were what "Mystery Science Theater 3000" in the 1990s was made for.

Others here have attempted to explain the storyline , which is so convoluted and fragmented throughout that there is not a shred of suspense or even empathy for the characters. Strangely enough, I still think this movie does have one important historical value: like a representation of Communism itself, it shows what at the time must have been wild scientific/philosophical idealism in its home country, but in hindsight is just robots made of ugly hunks of metal junk and astronauts with holes in their socks.