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Strange New Worlds: Science Fiction at DEFA - Limited Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Eureka Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (26th May 2025). |
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The Film
 "Following the division of Germany in the aftermath of World War II, DEFA was established as the state-owned film studio of East Germany or the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Active from 1946 until its dissolution in 1992, the studio made hundreds of feature films in a diverse range of genres, from hard-hitting dramas to crime thrillers, fairytale adaptations and Westerns. During the 1960s and 1970s, it also produced a series of colourful and wildly imaginative science fiction films in which courageous cosmonauts attempt to unravel the secrets of the universe: The Silent Star, Signals: A Space Adventure, Eolomea, and In the Dust of the Stars." The Silent Star: In 1970, a strange rock is discovered in the Gobi desert. Analysis reveals that the rock is of extraterrestrial origin and matches fragments of a supposed meteorite crash in Tunguska, Siberia in 1908 that Russian astronaut Arsenyev (Mikhail N. Postnikov) believes came from within their solar system on the only other planet capable of sustaining life Venus, and that the crash was not a meteorite but a spaceship that jettisoned the rock before impact. Inside the rock is a damaged glass cylinder from which Chinese linguist Chen Yu (Hua-Ta Tang) decodes by bombarding with sound waves what seems to be a chemical analysis of Earth's physical landscape; whereupon, Arsenyev decides to mount an international expedition to Venus consisting of himself, Chen Yu, American astrophysicist Hawling (Lemonade Joe's Oldrich Lukes), German pilot Brinkman (Heroin's Günther Simon), Japanese physician Sumiko Omigura (The Savage Innocents' Yôko Tani) whose husband was killed on a lunar expedition, Polish cybernetician Soltyk (Ashes and Diamonds' Ignacy Machowski), African engineer Talua (Julius Ongewe), Indian mathematician Sikarna (The Thief of Bagdad's Kurt Rackelmann), and Soltyk's chess-playing robot barometer Omega. After thirty days on autopilot during which the group get to know one another playing chess, socializing, and navigating meteor showers, they arrive within Venus' orbit; whereupon the late translation recovered from the damaged portion of the cylinder reveals more sinister reasons for the Venusians study of the Earth and the need to land on the planet surface to make an attempt at peace or to discover just when their new enemies plan to act. Better-known in the West in its dubbed, shortened, library-scored American edit "First Spaceship on Venus", The Silent Star is based on the novel "The Astronauts" by Stanislaw Lem, himself better-known over here as the author of "Solaris" which had been adapted for Soviet television, in 1972 by Andrei Tarkovsky, and more recently in 2002 by Steven Soderbergh. The first and most popular of the East German DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme science fiction efforts – this one co-produced by the Polish Zespol Filmowy "Iluzjon" – and the country's Totalvision anamorphic, four-track stereo contribution to the cinematic versions of the Space Race, the film establishes an idealistic futuristic world that would recur throughout their other unrelated entries in which Nazism is seen as the lowest point in human history and the Hiroshima bombing in science with multiple nations working towards world peace – although not without some competition like Hawling's American colleagues wanting him to pilot an American expedition instead and the Soviet press asking Arsenyev the reason for the multinational crew – and their first reaction to the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life is establishing a relationship rather than fearing a threat. The film spends its first act on Earth and its second aboard the ship dealing with human interaction that upon landing on Venus the viewer may at first be disappointed that the film may devolve into a humans versus alien monsters movie in the mold of Hollywood science fiction from the previous decade – especially when Brinkman falls into a crater and encounters a puppeted metallic mini bugs that are more cute than threatening – but the film's climax ultimately affirms the human mission for world peace and exploration when confronted with "reminders" of their own catastrophic potential. The film's pre-2001: A Space Odyssey special effects – supervised by Ernst Kunstmann whose effects work goes back to the likes of Metropolis and Varieté – are uneven and has more in common with the concurrent work of Antonio Margheriti on his lower-budgeted Assignment Outer Space (indeed, the twist of the film was echoed by Margheriti in Battle of the Worlds) while the Venus scenes feel like more expensive but less expressionistic and imaginative versions of Mario Bava's "demon planet" in Planet of the Vampires but the dramatic emphasis remains on the peril of its characters and the resolution is both somber and optimistic. Director Kurt Maetzig had helmed a number of World War II era films as well as a two-parter on German communist politician Ernst Thälmann which was presumably his qualification for the film more so than experience with special effects and science fiction elements. Cinematographer Joachim Hasler later photographed and directed the popular East German "beach party" film Hot Summer while Polish composer Andrzej Markowski (A Generation) had previously scored the Walerian Borowczyk/Chris Marker short Les astronautes.  Signals: A Space Adventure: When explorer ship Ikarus searching for signs of intelligent life just outside the orbit of Venus receives strange signals just before encountering an occluded meteor shower and breaking up, no manned or unmanned vehicles have been able to find them and they are written off by Space Security Headquarters as a mystery until Commander Veikos (Deluge's Piotr Pawlowski) makes a special request to do another search more than half-a-year later under the guise of doing routine repairs lest he get the hopes up of his specially-selected crew which includes colleague Konrad (The Rabbit is Me's Alfred Müller) who has been doing revolutionary radio wave research and has been trying to translate the recordings of the signals he made when his own craft was in the vicinity of the Ikarus shortly before impact and Pawel (Ivan's Childhood's Evgeniy Zharikov) who had a nervous breakdown and had been institutionalized since the disappearance of his fiancee Krystina (Karin Ugowski) aboard the Ikarus. The commander of Luna North (Iurie Darie) suspects that Veikos has other reasons, especially given some of his other choices like Juana (Irena Karel) who has demonstrated her expertise at remote maneuvering of crafts but has yet to prove herself in space, veteran Gaston (Helmut Schreiber) who is celebrating his twenty-fifth year of service but may no longer be physically suitable for space travel, Terry (Old Shatterhand's Gojko Mitic) who dabbles with robots and is rather cavalier with regard to regulations, and physician Samira (Soheir El-Morshidy) who has already noted irregularities in Veikos' vitals. The mission starts out routine with each of the crew attending to their duties and getting accustomed to working with each other, but Pawel is tormented by his memories of Kristyna and wants to know to things: how and why Veikos got him back into active duty for a repair mission, and whether Konrad's radio wave experiments had anything to do with the reason why Space Security never received an emergency distress call from Ikarus (which is as simple as pressing a single button). When they start picking up the alien signals again and they pick up the ID of Ikarus, they are uncertain whether they have found the remains of the ship and possible survivors or whether an intelligent life form is using their own ship's memory data to draw them in and trap them. East Germany's answer to 2001: A Space Odyssey from director Gottfried Kolditz who had helmed a number of large budget comedies and westerns at the time, the Polish co-produced Signals: A Space Adventure is stunning to behold in terms of its visuals – the special effects crew obviously studied the model film's innovative special effects closely in terms of its miniature effects and zero gravity scenes – and the hybrid orchestral/electronic scoring of Karl-Ernst Sasse but its attempts to emulate Kubrick's clinical detachment has resulted in film that is rather dull in dramatic and action terms. Tonally all over the place with cutaways to a futuristic seaside beach party – which might be Party "healthy living" propaganda or a parody thereof – and some zero gravity scenes that feel more Barbarella than "Blue Danube" some of this is at least justified by most of the crew members believing that they are on a routine mission that includes an anniversary celebration for Gaston featuring a cartoon that looks only looks "primitive" until the viewer realizes that in this world joker Terry must have realized it not by hand-drawing cel animation but via "futuristic" computer technology considerably less advanced than what even a novice can attempt on a consumer-level setup these days. Left to the imagination is the composition of this world which seems both multi-ethnic, egalitarian, and seemingly without any geographic borders anymore given the mix of surnames despite most of them being played by German and Polish actors. In spite of attempts to drum up some drama with crew suspicions about one another and some of the sparest character development as each crew member shows their expertise in solving problems, the film drags with a heavy emphasis on the aforementioned routine repairs that seem less like foreshadowing to the climax and more excuses to show off the film's effects work. The third act twists and the "action" climax fall as flat as what is intended to be the emotional resolution. Although Kubrick's film was released in East Germany and no doubt overshadowed Signals: A Space Adventure as it had most other like productions in other countries, the film must have performed well enough for Kolditz to be able to mount another sci-fi epic later in the decade with In the Dust of the Stars just before Star Wars set a new bar for sci-fi effects films that was even harder to match.  Eolomea: When Lunar 3 delivers the sixth urgent report to Earth's Space Command of a ship that launched from and has not returned to the Margot space station base, Dr. Maria Scholl (A Question of Silence's Cox Habbema) recommends to the international council that all further flights from that base be put on hold. Professor Oli Tal (Mephisto's Rolf Hoppe) objects because it will stall progress on several projects, despite urgent reports of two more missing vessels from the same base interrupting the meeting, and he is overruled. Tal apologizes to Scholl about putting bureaucratic concerns over human life but she is suspicious when he lets slip that he is aware that his daughter was on one of the ships before they have received the list of missing crew number nearly one hundred and fifty. Probing confidential service records, Scholl discovers that Tol as a young scientist had been heavily involved in a project called "Eolomea" that was rejected by the United Nations. From Tol himself, she discovers that Eolomea was a recurring phenomena of a pulsing light observed every twenty-four years since the nineteenth century emanating from the Cygnus constellation that Tol and scientist Pierre Brodsky (Petar Slabakov) – who has since contracted an unearthly disease and banished himself to a far off asteroid where he has had himself hermetically-sealed into his space suit – believed to be a laser probing their galaxy from what Brodsky theorized was a "symmetrical twin" of Earth lacking poles and tropics; hence "Eolomea" which translates as "eternal spring" as interpreted from the laser beam using Morse code and suggesting that the inhabitants must also be like those of Earth. The rocket technology was primitive at the time the U.N. rejected the project but Tol muses that now would be the ideal time to seek out the other world. Scholl suspects that Tol may actually have something to do with the disappearances of the ships when he too vanishes just as one of the missing ships reappears bound for Margot which itself is not responding to radio communication. Scholl travels into space with an exploratory crew in pursuit of the "ghost ship" while idling away on an asteroid, "interplanetary taxi" transport pilots Kun (Assassination Attempt's Vsevolod Sanaev) and Scholl's lover Daniel Lagny (Detour's Ivan Andonov) have also unknowingly happened upon part of the solution to the mystery which becomes clearer when they are ordered to head off the other ship on its way to Margot. Although rich in "space opera" 70mm imagery of model ships and expansive miniature extraterrestrial terrains – more refined from Signals: A Space Adventure by some of the same effects crew – with six-track sound design, Eolomea is far more of a mystery than a science fiction programmer, and its tonal shifts between space where the mind wanders and reflects, an Earth of scientific personnel as harried in work as they are in celebrating the New Year, and various acoustically-scored cutaways that could either be memories or fantasies actually so suit character development. Pilot Kun has banished himself to the far side of the universe while his son Sima (Benjamin Besson) has grown up and attended the space academy in Margot and Kun the elder yearns to show him Earth for the first time, imagining him as still a child without pondering its significance to someone who has never set foot on it. Daniel yearns to run away to the Galapagos Islands with Maria, but the gradual unfolding of their flashbacks of their courtship at a seaside resort reveals her dedication as a scientist including pushing Daniel to accept his current position which was supposed to last a few months with the potential to transfer to something more prestigious but it seems to have been a few years instead. Out of all of them, Tol seems to be the least sentimental, but he may actually be the most "romantic" as the film asks us to ponder if scientists should look beyond their own potential for making advancements and discoveries in favor of future generations (especially with the revelation that with the current technology it could take more than a century for confirmation of Eolomea's existence to get back to the Earth). Although made in the mid-seventies, the film has more of a sixties pop art look combined with a Scooby Doo-esque absurdity to the mystery angle as played by Habeema and Hoppe in mod clothing that nearly overshadows their performances that leaves one disarmed for the unexpectedly moving ending or endings to the multiple threads.  In the Dust of Stars: A ship from the Cynro base commanded by Akala (I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen's Jana Brejchová) answers a distress call on a distant planet called Tem-4, nearly crash-landing in the process. Exploring the desert surface, they discover that the atmosphere is breathable without their suits when they are welcomed by Ctha (Aurelia Dumitrescu), a young woman who escorts them in a land rover to their underground kingdom where seeming leader Ronk (She Devils of the SS' Milan Beli) reclines and offers them aerosol spray refreshment before informing them that they are not in need of help, and that their distress call was part of a series of experiments with newly-installed radio equipment. Akala accepts Ronk's hospitality for the three to four days during which they must ready the ship for launching again, but Suko (Alfred Struwe) who has remained on-board has intercepted radio communication between Tem-4 and Tem-3 that indicates that their near crash-landing was engineered by the Tems. When he confides this in Akala, he is shocked that she does not seem to believe him, nor do his shipmates Thob (Knife in the Water's Leon Niemczyk), Rall (Rock'n Roll Wolf's Violeta Andrei), Miu (Regine Heintze), and Ilyk (Silvia Popovici) when they return from Tem-3's lavish welcoming festivities. Although they all suspiciously use the same phrases in describing the Temians as "fun and a little crazy" Suko is unable to find anything in the food they have brought back with them. When Suko takes an exploratory probe out himself to investigate the terrain, Ronk returns in his place but is prevented from entering the ship. When Suko is returned to the crew behaving differently, the rest of crew start to question the real intentions of the Temians. An original script by director Gottfried Kolditz, In the Dust of the Stars looks on the surface like a campy Star Trek or Space 1999 episode with a villain whose hair dye color changes with each scene, on-demand scantily-clad girls doing expertly-choreographed numbers – dancer Heintze also does a silhouetted nude dance presumably under the influence of the Temians – mod space-wear, and mind control. Although the villains are decadent (and chauvinist), the Cynro crew themselves do not appear entirely free of old prejudices with what first appears as a battle of the sexes between Akala who stresses diplomacy and Suko who seems joyless and distrustful (with his noted position as more of a historian than an engineer emphasizing the need to remember and not repeat history). The representations of both opposing parties as East and West becomes more obvious once the story twists late in the film reveal the film to actually be a colonial allegory, with the Tems justifying their subjugation of the planet's original inhabitants for their resources by describing them as having "no culture" and worshiping Gods rather than technology (the set's extras noting that techno-centric science fiction was generally associated by the East with capitalism). The weakness of the film is that it sort of peters out, with the action climax seeming to simply wrap things up predictably rather than engender any real suspense. Having realized that their programme of 70mm, six-track productions was not financially feasible with most venues having to screen 35mm reductions with mono sound, DEFA drops those embellishments for In the Dust of the Stars but the flat 1.66:1 mono imagery is still stuffed with psychedelic eye-candy – which would have seemed incredibly outdated had the film reached the West in the mid-seventies – even if the amount of visual effects has been scaled back and more natural locations utilized in Romania. The film was Kolditz's second-to-last work, but his final film The Thing in the Castle appears to have been in a similar quirky fantastic vein. 
Video
Better known in the West in its recut, English-dubbed, rescored American version "First Spaceship on Venus" – supervised by Hugo Grimaldi who also retooled the English export versions of Mill of the Stone Women and Hercules in the Haunted World and supervised the dubbing of Godzilla Raids Again as "Gigantis: The Fire Monster" for American distribution – shown on heavy rotation in television syndication and then as various gray market and unauthorized sources while Western viewers finally got to see a widescreen, non-anamorphic transfer of the American version from Image Entertainment the same year a German DVD came out featuring a non-anamorphic letterboxed transfer of the original cut. In 2005, First Run Features carried over that German master to DVD with subtitles but still non-anamorphicAmerican reissue DVD added some more supplemental features but was still non-anamorphic as was a 2016 German DVD. MOD label Gemini Entertainment put out a BD-R of the American verison but it was not until last year that the German rights owner remastered the film as a 2K scan of the original 35mm camera negatives which they released on Blu-ray. Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen Blu-ray comes from the same master, with a more restrained but wider range of colors in the Agfacolor stock than the garishly-processed American prints (video masters of which were either faded or pumped up digitally). There is a certain softness to the Totalvision scope process in the wide shots where focus falls off at the edges while the new transfer does reveal the rough edges of some of the effects, including some in-camera tricks on the Venus scenes, but overall it better represents the scope and scale of DEFA's science fiction alternatives to their Western competition.  Presumably due to its dated sixties look and sub-2001: A Space Odyssey effects, Signals: A Space Adventure was not picked up for theatrical release in the U.S. or U.K. The film came to DVD in Germany in 2014 and France in 2020, neither of which were English-friendly as expected. Although the film received a 4K restoration from a 6K scan of the original 70mm negatives last year, the film made its Blu-ray debut earlier this year in the United States from Deaf Crocodile in a limited edition Gottfried Kolditz double feature with In the Dust of the Stars with multiple cover choices and will be out in a standard edition in June. Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC widescreen Blu-ray comes from the same master but for some reason Eureka has decided to matte the image to 2.35:1 (the Deaf Crocodile is 2.20:1). While the film would have been more widely seen in 35mm anamorphic reductions framed at 2.35:1 and the production obviously allowed for this – more so than Eolomea where 2.35:1 matting would likely cut off the tops of heads in some compositions – the DEFA restoration was framed at the 70mm aspect ratio so it seems odd that Eureka would make the call to reframe a restoration that they did not perform themselves. The Orwo 70mm color process has popping primaries while the blacks occasionally take on a hint of gray or blue in the space miniature shots and occasionally a wire is visible – in the Eolomea documentary, the effects cameraman discusses Signals: A Space Adventure and how some shots of the rockets lifting off were done with the set upside down because viewers would not look for wires underneath objects, but it appears they could not do this for shots that included actors – and however much the film is influenced by the Kubrick film, this is a generally more eye-popping universe in terms of color when it comes to the ship decors and wardrobe of the travelers.  Another 70mm production, Eolomea was unseen in the United States or United Kingdom – barring some possible film festival play – and the 2000 German DVD was non-anamorphic, as was the 2005 U.S. DVD which at least had English subtitles. The film finally got a remaster in Germany on Blu-ray in 2017 followed by a French Blu-ray in 2024. Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.20:1 widescreen Blu-ray comes from this relatively older scan. The image fares best during the space sequences and model shots as well as the more controlled lighting of studio interiors. The bright exteriors like the resort courtship of the romantic leads, however, can look a bit harsh in terms of the highlights from Habbema's blonde hair and fair skin to Andronov's white trousers and the white seaside buildings. Compared to the new scan of Signals: A Space Adventure, one wonders how this somewhat slicker production might have looked with a newer scan but we presume that the DEFA Foundation is concentrating on restorations of some of the other tantalizing titles mentioned in the extras throughout this set.  Unreleased theatrically in the U.S. or U.K., In the Dust of the Stars first appeared on DVD in Germany followed by a U.S. DVD, both non-anamorphic and overmatted to 1.85:1 but the latter including English subtitles. The 2021 German DVD – a double feature with Signals: A Space Adventure finally featured an anamorphic transfer in the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio but the film's Blu-ray debut came from France in 2024 followed by the aforementioned Deaf Crocodile limited edition double feature earlier this year in the states and Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen Blu-ray under review. Shot flat in 35mm, the film can look a bit coarser during the opticals and some of the backlit shots during the Romanian mud volcano sequences while blacks have a blue tinge in the underground salt mine sequences, but the bright studio interiors of the ship and the underground Temian lair look sharp and colorful, with blues, reds, and greens a particularly standout in the décor and costumes. The resolution may reveal a papier mache quality to some of the set's rocky walls but a few extreme close-ups of the dancer's facial features are detailed enough to reveal specs of eye make-up in the eyebrows and the "bleed" of the Temian boss' spray-painted hair (Heintze's nude silhouetted dance scene is also more "detailed" than evident on the streaming version of the same master on Kanopy but that is probably due to streaming bandwidth rather than any censorship). 
Audio
The Silent Star premiered in East Germany with a 4-Track Stereo soundtrack which was of course mixed down to mono for most engagements and the optical track of one of these prints was presumably the source for the mono tracks on the previous German DVDs (the 2.0 stereo track on the German Blu-ray was also an upmix). There is some confusion in the menu as the main option is an "original stereo" soundtrack which is in LPCM 2.0 stereo which would be a mix-down of the four track materials but we also get a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 rechanneling of the discrete mix with basically mono rear channels. The 2.0 track is perfectly serviceable in conveying some directional effects and the warmth of the scoring but the 5.1 track gives the mix more breadth while the English subtitles are presumably more accurate than earlier versions with regard to character names (although we have not compared them to the German HoH subtitles on the German Blu-ray).  The German DVD of Signals: A Space Adventure featured a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track from the six-track materials while Eureka includes both an LPCM 2.0 stereo downmix as well as a rechannelled DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The 2.0 track gets the job done but the 5.1 track is recommended as the sound mix is far more adventurous than The Silent Star suiting the extensive effects sequences and the hybrid electronic/orchestral score sound truly distant here rather than just low on the track (the wordless vocals which may be an actual voice or an electronically-treated sound has kind of a spaghetti western sound). Optional English subtitles more than characterization help the viewer keep track of who is who.  Eolomea also had a six-track mix for its premiere and the German Blu-ray included 5.1 and 2.0 stereo tracks while Eureka only includes an LPCM 2.0 stereo track. The film is less ambitious in terms of sound design, with the music fittingly doing much of the work given the character-centered story with washes of score accompanying overhead shots of the asteroid's miniature landscape as a place where the characters can do little more but look inwards and fantasize. A few ship launches and and traveling in space shots are directional and the New Years party sequence is one of the busier bits but the overall the mix is more conservative than the film that came before it.  In the Dust of the Stars was shot flat and also mixed in mono but Eureka's LPCM 2.0 track proves that this is no deficit to a film that makes up for the lack of epic scope with campy spectacle, as the psychedelic music one again does more of the work in the sound design than sound effects. Even the ship sounds are generally scaled back and later laser fire sound less fantastical. The low-key action climax is capably supported by the sound effects, and it really does not offer a lot that might jolt the audience. It may be a disappointment compared to the stereo and surround experimentation of the earlier films but it is a perfectly competent mono track for a studio film. The optional subtitles translate dialogue but not the folksy theme song. 
Extras
The Silent Star is accompanied by an audio commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove as described in the menu and extras but is actually Wingrove reading the commentary of his Romanian university colleague augmented with some of his own observations. As this is the first of four tracks scripted by Man and delivered by Wingrove, it is appropriate that discussion includes the founding of DEFA after the war, noting that the Allied-controlled area of Germany and the Soviet-controlled one took different approaches to "removing" fascist ideology and instilling democracy through the media, with the Allied focusing on print media while the Soviets used film which had been the most effective propaganda tool of the Nazis. Wingrove goes back and forth between discussion of the early years of DEFA and the film at hand – a fault of the set is that the volume of the film does not always come up when Wingrove goes silent after noting the viewer should pay attention to a scene unfolding – noting the international cooperation and multi-ethnic representation was both a projection of Soviet and communist propaganda but also reflecting their actual practice including the invitation to people in colonized countries to study in Eastern Bloc countries (Ongewe was actually a Kenyan medical student in Leipzig who decided he would be more useful to his own country as a medic than an actor). In introducing the Utopian society ideal that recurs throughout the set, Man and Wingrove also note that the scene of American corporate interests trying to derail Hawling's participation in the international effort was a late addition to the script and that director Maetzig had criticized an earlier draft of the script that glossed over any ideological differences. They also reveal that the name of the reporter (Mother Joan of the Angels herself Lucyna Winnicka) – called "Jane Moran" in the English dub – is indeed a nod to actress Jeanne Moreau as she is designated in the subtitles here and in earlier unofficial fansub editions. They also discuss the cast including the Soviet-imposed Postnikov who reportedly also provided some technical assistance on the film, Simon who was a discovery of Maetzig and played his Ernst Thälmann, and an uncredited Eduard von Winterstein (The Blue Angel) in his final role. They also discuss the differences between the Lem novel and the film, including some "wishful thinking" in conveying the collective (including the film's amicable Chinese/Japanese relations in light of the Second Sino-Japanese War). "Red Skies" (32:26) is an interview with Soviet cinema expert Claire Knight who discusses the development of cinema in the Soviet-controlled side of Germany and its evolution and the loosening and tightening of Soviet control and censorship in its early years. In the overview of the films in the set, Knight notes that although the DEFA's science fiction films were termed "Utopian Cinema" Communist Social Realism required that they depict utopia as a work in progress, with the futuristic settings depicting something more refined than the present but still an ongoing effort. The disc also features the 1968 animated DEFA short "Robot" (15:04) by Klaus Georgi, "British Filmmaker Visits DEFA" (1:29), a 1959 newsreel documenting the visit of Anthony Asquith (The Browning Version) visit to the set, "A Rocket in the Soviet Zone" (0:49), 1959 newsreel covering the film's production, the film's theatrical trailer (3:16), as well as a box set trailer (1:39).  Signals: A Space Adventure is also accompanied by an audio commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove who discusses the obvious influence of 2001: A Space Odyssey which was not officially released in East Germay while also revealing that director Kolditz acknowledged both the Kubrick film and Barbarella even showing both films to the cast and crew to get his ideas across. Just as the extras in both Eureka's Mabuse Lives! Dr. Mabuse at CCC: 1960-1964 and Terror in the Fog: The Krimi at CCC cover genre cinema in West Germany, Melville and Man discuss how it differed in the Eastern Bloc, noting that before the science fiction films, the cycle of East German westerns took a different position from the Western ones, running counter to the capitalist, colonialist perspective of "Western" westerns and telling stories rooted in historical truth from the perspective of Native Americans, hence the label "Indianerfilm" and revealing that both West German and East German westerns were shot in Yugoslavia with some of the same crew and local actors, and that Mitic who plays Terry here was the East German equivalent to French actor Pierre Brice from CCC's Winnetou films and would even take over the role when Brice stepped down. They discuss Kolditz's earlier western films which qualified him for the scope and scale of the DEFA sci-fi films, the cast, the film's literary source, and the 70mm programme of films and their impracticality in exhibition.  Eolomea is also accompanied by another audio commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove, discussing how the angle of gender equality is emphasized here more with the character and casting of Habbema, a Dutch actress who had become popular in East German film and television playing strong female roles, as well as noting that the film plays with Hoppe's screen image as a campy villain. Man also notes that the asteroid space station scenes revealing that not all is ideal in their Communist Utopian future was the sort of "gentle" criticism that East German audiences appreciated and liked to notice and point out to friends. They also interpret the flashback/fantasies as "idealized daydreams" and denote the film's central conflict between a generation that has nostalgia for the past and one that paradoxically has "nostalgia for the future." "Blast Off" (24:22) is an interview with science fiction scholar Mark Bould who discusses the shift towards more adult-oriented science fiction from the late fifties onward in different countries with no overarching concern, differentiating Soviet and Communist science fiction writing and film from the Western models. He notes how the half space exploration and half mysical The Silent Star anticipates 2001: A Space Odyssey while the three films that came after Kubrick film recognized the awful technocratic world beneath the spectacle of the Kubrick world and proposed a Utopian alternative in keeping with their ideals while also acknowledging the need to adapt and evolve. "Cosmonaut Dreams - Made in Babelsberg" (19:21) is a 2005 retrospective documentary on the making of Eolomea in which costume designer Barbara Müller-Braumann (The Legend of Paul and Paula) discusses having to stick to reality in designing the space suits while having to copy their designs from displays at the Cosmonaut Museum in Moscow with no explanation as to their technical aspects while having more creative freedom in designing Habema's dresses while Hoppe had strong opinions about his costumes. In separate interviews, special effects cameraman Kurt Marks (Olle Hexe) and technician Jan-Peter Schmarje discuss the challenges of the 70mm shooting and the miniature and piano wire effects. The disc also includes the hybrid animated/live action DEFA short "Jana and the Little Star" from 1971 by Christl Wiemer (14:56) and Eolomea's German theatrical trailer (2:25).  In the Dust of Stars is also accompanied by an audio commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove in which discussion of how the film differs from Signals despite the initial similar setup of answering a call from outer space encompasses the creation of the DEFA Futurism workshop group, a collective of scientists and film creatives making works that would address prognoses of the future in accessible and relatable ways (to counter the influence of Western German and American "futurology" accessible to East German audiences via West German television); as such, while Kolditz is credited with the film's screenplay, the credited "dramaturgist" Joachim Hellwig was actually the collective's script editor. They note that making the Temians and the Turians anthropomorphic was a deliberate choice – although Akala refers to all of them as humans (at least in subtitle translation) – in contrast to the Western sci-fi other as a warning that the most dangerous are those ones who look like you, the colonial elements of the story, and ultimately the reception to the film by the studio who felt that the film's campy elements were a pandering attempt at attracting a wider audience. The track also includes a bit more on Kolditz's career as a genre filmmaker. "Marx Attacks " (15:16) contrasts the Dystopian Metropolis with the Utopian ideals of the DEFA films – along with the "fear of the future" inherent in Western science fiction – as well as provides some more background on the Futurism collective. Discussion also includes the one work that could be defined as science fiction in immediate post-Nazi years and some of the early DEFA shorts including one that was made up entirely of Western science fiction covers to illustrate the overall dystopian position. "Love 2002" (24:45) is a 1972 DEFA documentary short by Joachim Hellwig which starts with a stylized dance number that posits a view of love (or at least coupling) in the future with contemporary opinions on love – seemingly intended to present it as problematic with the "host" accosting passengers rushing to get on a plane – as well as some sketches. Ported from the First Run DVD – with wonky burnt-in subtitles translation – is "Dusting Off After 30 Years" (16:03), an interview with cinematographer Peter Süring (Don't Cheat, Darling!) who discusses the challenges of shooting on the locations – and his disappointment that the actual "mud volcano" could not be included since the planet was supposed to be dry – as well as his recollections of the cast. The disc also includes the film's theatrical trailer (2:50). 
Packaging
The limited collector's edition of 2,000 copies including a hardcase featuring new artwork by Carly A-F and 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 (neither of which was supplied for review). 
Overall
DEFA's contribution to East Germany's and the Soviet Union's role in the space race may have produced only a few science fiction features, but Strange New Worlds: Science Fiction at DEFA reveals that the studio's ambitions went beyond programmers in terms of both production and narrative ideology.
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