Possession

Possession emerged as the ‘loser’ of the unofficial duel of two Cannes 1982 competition entries by esteemed Eastern European masters. While Andrzej Wajda’s somber Man of Iron won the Palme d’Or, his onetime protégé’s ambitious body horror garnered only a Best Actress accolade for Isabelle Adjani.

Żuławski was adamant that his tale of dissolution of a marriage (with Adjani and Sam Neill at their most visceral and anguished) was in fact a Cold War parable of pure evil infiltrating the West through the cracks of the Berlin Wall (prominently featured in the opening credits). Set to a hypnotic, percussive synth score by Andrzej Korzyński, Possession remains one of a kind — a true horror masterpiece, an acting tour de force, as well as a work of lacerating autobiography, in which Żuławski reworks his own split from his wife Małgorzata Braunek in terms of a delirious genre ride.