The Silent Star is part of the DEFA Collection

Remastered Special Edition - Uncut & Unaltered!

In this celebrated sci-fi classic, a mysterious object from outer space is found in the Gobi desert. An international expedition, dispatched to Venus to decipher the message it contains, discovers it is a declaration of war - on Earth!

The first sci-fi film made in East Germany by the legendary DEFA film studio, The Silent Star is a masterpiece in story, art and set design, and technology and was the forerunner of 2001: A Space Odyssey and, later, Contact. Based on the novel The Astronauts by Stanislaw Lem (who also wrote Solaris) and made during the U.S./U.S.S.R. space race set off by the Sputnik launch, The Silent Star is now finally available unedited and unaltered in this digitally remastered version.

What the Critics are Saying

"The DEFA Sci-Fi Collection'' brings together three cold-war fantasies of space travel and Communist domination of the known universe, blending outrageous camp and Marxist ideology." - New York Times

"If there's anything more beguiling to a true treasure-hunting cinephile than the old films of a lost nation-in this case, East Germany-it's that nation's idiosyncratic genre flicks. Socialist sci-fi! First Run is releasing three uncut films from DEFA, the GDR's premier production studio, all of them chintzy, freaky, conceptual space operas focused, surprisingly, on character and emotional fallout." - Village Voice

"Running the gamut from the exceedingly nerdy and expository to the absolutely tripped out, reckless consumption of this set may result in full-fledged conversion to a utopian space politics unheard of this side of the United Space Federation. Highly enjoyable!"
- Stop Smiling Magazine