35th Leeds International Film Festival is back between 3-18 November 2021, this time presenting Stanislaw Lem Retrospective within it’s fantastic programme.

STANISŁAW LEM SHORTS

8.11.2021 5:30PM

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To mark the centenary of the great science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, we present this tribute in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute and the University of Leeds. Legendary stop motion animators the Quay Brothers will be appearing in person to present their new short film primer, 11 Preliminatory Orbits Around Planet Lem, alongside Maska, a beautiful adaptation of one of his short stories made in 2010. Also screening is another rarely screened Lem adaptation, Roly Poly made by Polish master Andrzej Wajda in 1968. A panel discussion follows, exploring Lem’s legacy.

PILOT PIRX’S INQUEST

8.11.2021 8:30PM

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A rarely screened adaptation of a story by the great Polish science fiction author, Stanislaw Lem, Pilot Pirx’s Inquest follows his most famous character, the everyman of the space age turned heroic space pilot. Here he is sent on a mission to Saturn to evaluate ‘nonlinears’, androids which are supposedly indistinguishable from humans. He knows one of the crew members is a robot, but he doesn’t know which one, leading to a dangerous game with his secret opponent. Presented in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute to celebrate Stanislaw Lem’s centenary.

SOLARIS

12.11.2021 12:00PM

15.11.2021 1:45PM

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Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky took one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, and made it his own in this visionary 1972 film. It is both richly cinematic, with mesmerising cinematography by Vadim Yusov, and a gripping and mysterious psychological thriller. Donatas Banionis plays Kris Kelvin, a psychologist sent to a space station orbiting a distant planet to investigate the bewildering behaviour of the crew there. But he soon finds out they are plagued by mysterious visitors, at once both alien and strangely familiar.