Reviews

This is one of those cases that go against the received idea that when confronted with a film based on a novel the latter is always better than the former. Here we have a film that goes beyond Stanislaw Lem's sci-fi novel both in depth and complexity of the philosophical problem of identity. I consider this Tarkovski's best film, even though he himself was not totally pleased with the result.

The problem with this film is that it is poorly made. The subject is interesting enough, being the biography of Catalan submarine inventor Narcis Monturiol. The Catalan autonomous government aids and sponsors any films concerned with the rendering of Catalan history and the celebration of Catalan important historical figures without giving much thought about the quality of the film director etc who presents the project. So good Catalan directors end up being marginalised (economically) if they have other interests.