THE WAR OF THE WORLDS - THE NEXT CENTURY

December 1999, somewhere in the Western world, a few days since the landing of the Martians. The population quickly shows obedience to the new rulers, all important institutions have pledged their allegiance. Idem, a popular television presenter, is the only rebel against the new order. He begins tentatively, then ever more vocally and publicly. His viewers, however, have already stepped into line and are incapable of absorbing his message. Although staged as science fiction and set in the West, the film leaves no doubt about which society is meant – the allusions to the arbitrariness and complaisance rife in communist Poland are all too clear. Not surprisingly, the film was immediately banned; it first screened two years after completion.