About

Based on themes drawn from Stanislaw Lem’s 1961 cult science-fiction novel, Solaris follows psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) who travels to a space station orbiting the planet Solaris to investigate strange occurrences there. Kelvin comes to understand that the mysterious ocean covering the planet’s surface is causing the memories and fears of the cosmonauts on the space station to materialise. Kelvin himself encounters his dead wife and must face anew his loss and the emotions surrounding the circumstances of her death. The space travel in Tarkovsky’s film is largely through the recesses of the mind, a reservoir of images and memories that, like cinema, awaken the poetic and emotional associations of objects. Solaris received the Grand Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972.