On the Silver Globe (Polish: Na srebrnym globie) is a Polish epic science fiction film^[1] directed and written by Andrzej Żuławski. It is an adaptation of The Lunar Trilogy by Jerzy Żuławski. Starring Andrzej Seweryn, Jerzy Trela, Iwona Bielska, Jan Frycz, Henryk Bista, Grażyna Deląg and Krystyna Janda. A team of astronauts land on an inhabitable planet and form a society. Many years later, a single astronaut is sent to the planet and becomes a messiah.

The production of the film took place from 1976 to 1977, but was interrupted by the decision of the Polish authorities. After a few years, Żuławski was able to finish his film.

Jerzy Żuławski wrote the novel on which the film is based, On the Silver Globe, around 1900 as part of The Lunar Trilogy. Żuławski was the granduncle of Andrzej Żuławski. Andrzej Żuławski left his native Poland for France in 1972 to avoid Polish communist government censorship. After Żuławski’s critical success with the 1975 film L’important c’est d’aimer, the Polish authorities in charge of cultural affairs reevaluated their assessment of him. They invited him to return to Poland and produce a project of his own choice. Żuławski, who had always wanted to make a film of his grand uncle’s novel, saw the offer as a unique opportunity to achieve this aim.

Between 1975 and 1977, Żuławski adapted the novel into a screenplay. He shot the film at various locations, including the Baltic seashore at Lisi Jar near Rozewie, Lower Silesia, the Wieliczka Salt Mine, the Tatra Mountains, the Caucasus mountains in Georgia, the Crimea in USSR, and the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. In the fall of 1977, the project came to a sudden halt when Janusz Wilhelmi was appointed vice-minister of cultural affairs. Wilhelmi shut down the film project, which was eighty percent complete, and ordered all materials destroyed.

The reels of the unfinished film were ultimately not destroyed, but preserved, along with costumes and props, by the film studio and by members of the cast and crew. Although Wilhelmi died a few months later in a plane crash, the film was only released after the end of communist rule. In May 1988, a version of the film, consisting of the preserved footage plus a commentary to fill in the narrative gaps, premiered at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.

color, stereo, 157 minutes. DVD-R comes packaged as shown in color DVD case, wrapped in plastic!