film

Tarkovsky's 1972 adaptation of Stanisław Lem's 1961 book clocks in at just under three hours and is a meditative, inexplicable treat from start to finish. Donatas Banionis plays a psychologist named Kris Kelvin who the authorities send to a manned space station orbiting the fictional planet of Solaris. He is to evaluate the situation there, where the scientific mission has stalled because of various bizarre happenings and the skeleton crew of three scientists have fallen into emotional crises.

What Kelvin finds there is truly mind-boggling - the planet's ocean is a vast living organism that appears to be sentient and has the ability to read people's minds. Tarkovsky wanted Solaris to add emotional and narrative depth to the sci-fi genre by focusing less on technological advancement, a fixation he felt had left most Western sci-fi feeling shallow and inconsequential. With this extraordinary, immersive work, he succeeded beyond measure.