Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2018: #67. Krzysztof Zanussi’s Ether

Ether

Polish auteur Krzysztof Zanussi is well into his sixth decade of narrative filmmaking with an ambitious new period piece, Ether. After working in short film format through most of the 1950s, Zanussi began making features by the end of the 1960s, and was an incredibly prolific figure throughout the 1970s and 80s. While teaching summer workshops in Switzerland and teaching at the Silesian University in Katowice, Zanussi manages to release a new film project every few years, including a variety of television films. His latest tells the sordid tale of a doctor who conducts medical experiments on people in order to control them at the beginning of the 20th century—the project is described a version of Faust. The film stars notable Polish actor Andrzej Chyra and shot across two distinct periods in the latter half of 2017. Jacek Poniedziałek, Małgorzata Pritulak and Maria Ryaboshapka also star.

Release Date/Prediction: Zanussi’s name may not have the same infamy or prestige as Polanski, Zulwaski, Skolimowski, Wadja, or Kieslowski, but he is an equal compatriot with his peers. Most of his major accolades were collected in the 1970s and 80s, however. While Zanussi has only bowed in the Berlin comp once (1975’s A Woman’s Decision), he thrice competed in Cannes, including 1971’s Family Life, 1978’s The Spiral (which won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury), and 1980’s The Constant Factor (which won the Jury Prize). Zanussi won Locarno’s Golden Leopard in 1973 for The Illumination (which also won the FIPRESCI and Ecumenical Prize), and competed three times in Venice, winning the Golden Lion in 1984 for A Year of the Quiet Sun—he last appeared there in 2005 with Persona non grata. Zanussi’s last feature, 2014’s Foreign Body (check out my interview with the helmer), premiered out of Toronto. With Ether filming through the end of December, it’s most likely we’ll see Zanussi unveil in the fall at either Venice and TIFF or a combination of the two.