<b>Screening as part of <a href="https://www.filmhouse.org.uk/kinoteka-polish-film-festival">KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival 2026</a>.</b>
<b>PERFECT PAIRS: Book tickets for both <i>Possession</i> and <a href="https://www.filmhouse.org.uk/movie/man-of-iron-introduction-kinoteka"><i>Man of Iron</i></a> to receive a discount! Tickets can also be bought separately.</b>
<b>This screening will have an introduction from Polish film critic Michal Oleszczyk.</b>
<i>Possession</i> emerged as the ‘loser’ of the unofficial duel of two Cannes 1982 competition entries by esteemed Eastern European masters. While Andrzej Wajda’s somber <i>Man of Iron</i> won the Palme d’Or, his onetime protégé’s ambitious body horror garnered only a Best Actress accolade for Isabelle Adjani.
Żuławski was adamant that his tale of dissolution of a marriage (with Adjani and Sam Neill at their most visceral and anguished) was in fact a Cold War parable of pure evil infiltrating the West through the cracks of the Berlin Wall (prominently featured in the opening credits). Set to a hypnotic, percussive synth score by Andrzej Korzyński, <i>Possession</i> remains one of a kind — a true horror masterpiece, an acting tour de force, as well as a work of lacerating autobiography, in which Żuławski reworks his own split from his wife Małgorzata Braunek in terms of a delirious genre ride.HorrorPT2H4M182026-03-08