Aelita: Queen of Mars

FSK: 12
RELEASE DATE: 08.12.2023
Packaging: Digipak
Region code: A/B/C

A unique contemporary document of the Soviet revolutionary era and the first major production of its young film industry. Controversially discussed and differently evaluated for a hundred years, the film has become the model for many SF films thanks to its visual language and set design. The engineer Los' daydreams about the Martian princess Aelita, the failure of his marriage and his deteriorating living conditions lead to the construction of a spaceship and the flight to Mars, where a revolution takes place to overthrow the slave-owning society of King Tuskub.

Critics said the film was amazing because it created a truly innovative vision, four years before Fritz Lang's Metropolis, of a Martian culture with costumes and decorations inspired by Cubism. A bourgeois melodrama with social realism, a detective story, a proletarian comedy and a grandiose science fiction film, from the early years of Soviet cinema. Allessandro Aniballi from Quinlan rivista di critica cinematografica even said that he recognized parts of it in Star Wars: the queen's low-cut dress is very similar to Princess Leila's bikini and the mechanical Mars soldiers seem to be the forerunners of the Star Wars stormtroopers.
Wars stormtroopers, not to mention the dictatorial oppression that reigns on Aelita's Mars, very similar to the regime that the Galactic Empire imposed on its inhabitants in the Lucas saga.

Exclusively with radio play: "Aelita" A Mars novel by Alexei Tolstoy
℗ 1977; RIAS Berlin © 2023; Deutschlandradio/ostalgica
Narrator: Jürgen Thormann Losj: Harry Wüstenhagen Aelita: Hildegard Schinahl

USSR 1924
Director: Jakow Protasanow
Actors: Nikolai Tsereteli, Igor Ilyinsky, Nikolai Batalov, Yulia Solntseva

Technical data:

BD-25 Blu-ray Disc Aspect ratio: 1.37:1 (AVC / 1080p / 23,976 fps)
Audio track(s)/format(s): Mute, 3x music, 1x audio commentary (all tracksDolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
Intertitles: German / English
Running time: approx. 111 minutes

Extras:

- Audio commentary by Dr. Christoph Seelinger, Clemens Williges and Marco Koch
- "The Analog Music Project" Exclusive music video "Aelita - Queen of Mars" in color
- Colorized scenes Mars (16 minutes)
- Picture gallery (approx. 4 minutes)
- Animated film "The Interplanetary Revolution" (approx. 7 minutes with optional German and English subtitles)
- Audio book "The Mars Spy" (approx. 22 minutes)
- Radio play "Ein Marsroman" (approx. 44 minutes)
- Booklet