That’s exactly what happened with a movie from the 1970s, led by Polish filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski. You might know him for directing movies like Possession from 1981 or Fidelity from 2000.
Back then, Zulawski had been working on a new sci-fi project right around the time Star Wars first took the world by storm. His story was also set in space and was based on a trio of novels known as the lunar trilogy.
The film was called On The Silver Globe, and it featured actors like Andrzej Seweryn, Jerzy Trela, and Grazyna Dylag. The plot followed a group of astronauts who end up building a society after landing on the moon.
These astronauts start a new civilization, but they quickly discover that children born on the moon grow up at an unusually fast pace compared to those on Earth. Before the last surviving astronaut dies, he records and sends footage of everything they’ve been through back to Earth, where it’s eventually uncovered by a scientist named Marek.
If this kind of plot sounds right up your alley, here’s the catch—you can’t watch the complete version of the film. Unfortunately, the full movie was never released to the public.
While budget constraints may have been a challenge, the larger issue appeared to be the political climate. Reports suggest that the Polish government at the time was especially uneasy with how the film subtly critiqued the communist regime.
Warning: Scenes of nudity
Reflecting on what happened, actor Andrzej Seweryn told Vice: “The order of our minister of culture was the order for everybody. Poland didn’t have private cinema, it was a cinema of the state so stop meant stop. We tried to protest, to sign a letter, but it was without any result.”
Still, determined to share his work with the world, Zulawski got creative. He inserted clips of daily life in 1980s Poland to fill in the gaps where scenes were missing.
When the film finally got a showing at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, Zulawski personally narrated what was supposed to be happening during the lost scenes. It was a unique way to bring some closure to his long-abandoned vision.
One reviewer described the film like this: “Even out of time, even incomplete, even now that its director is gone for good.”On The Silver Globe” endures and its beautiful power will never dim.”