Solaris

A closer look at the story

Psychologist Kris Kelvin is sent to the research station orbiting Solaris, a mysterious planet covered by an ocean. His task is to look into unexplained events aboard, including the death of a crew member, and decide whether the research should continue. He finds the station run-down and the two surviving scientists guarded and on edge. Before long he is face to face with Hari, the wife he lost years earlier, and it becomes clear that the planet's ocean is a kind of mind that draws out people's buried memories. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky from Stanisław Lem's novel, the 167-minute 1972 Soviet film stars Donatas Banionis and Natalya Bondarchuk in a slow, contemplative science-fiction classic about grief, conscience and consciousness.