Solaris

**„Do you know yourself?“ **„Yes, all humans do.“ Another absolute masterpiece from Andrei Tarkovsky and my love for him just grows more and more. This film got everything. An amazing story, good and interesting characters, beautiful cinematography, incredible world building and incredible pacing. Starting with the pacing, this film doesn’t feel like 3 hours at all. It genuinely feels like an easy 1.5 hour watch. Even though Tarkovsky uses a lot of long shots, I wasn’t bored for a single second. Every shot had a purpose and made the atmosphere even stronger. The film already starts crazy. We get these beautiful shots of Kris standing in nature. Colors have so much meaning in this film and I interpreted the beginning as Kris still being connected to Earth and nature, but at the same time the melancholic colors already show that he’s emotionally separated from it and ready to leave. Then we get introduced to Kris, his family and his mission to investigate Solaris. We also get more background information through Burton’s video. I love that the entire video is shot in black and white because it immediately feels like a memory from the past. It’s simple but really effective. Then comes maybe my favorite shot in the whole film. The almost six minute drive through the city. I absolutely loved this scene. For me it symbolizes Kris leaving nature behind and entering this cold futuristic world. It’s basically the transition from Earth to the space station where he’s completely isolated from everything that made him human. Then like we already know from Tarkovsky we get another film filled with amazing dialogues. His dialogues never just explain things. They make you think. That’s honestly one of the biggest reasons why I love his films so much. When Kris finally arrives at the station nothing is like he imagined it. The colors become much colder, especially all the blues, making the station feel even more isolated. The first thing he does is step on his own shoe which already feels like some kind of bad omen. From there everything just keeps getting worse. He has these amazing conversations with Snaut and Sartorius and we learn that Gibarian committed suicide. The video Kris finds is honestly disturbing but it’s also such a good way to prepare us for what is about to happen. Then after Kris wakes up his dead wife is suddenly standing in his room. I also love how the scenery changes throughout the film. The more Kris mentally collapses, the more the space station starts to crumble and become dirtier. At first it already feels abandoned, but as his mind slowly falls apart the station almost becomes a reflection of his own mental state. It makes the station feel alive in a really unsettling way. From this moment everything changes. I really love how the film is structured. The first half slowly introduces us to the world, its characters and the mystery surrounding Solaris while the second half takes everything that was established and explores it on a much deeper psychological level. The second half starts with Kris trying to abandon Hari by sending her away in a shuttle. But after that Snaut explains why that’s impossible and that she will always come back. I also noticed that Snaut feels much more open now. Probably because he’s finally not alone anymore. Sartorius keeps doing his own thing and Gibarian is dead, so Kris is the only person who actually understands what he’s going through. From there we slowly learn more about the visitors. They’re basically created from human memories by Solaris itself trying to communicate. Then the film starts diving much deeper into Kris and Hari’s relationship. One thing I loved is that the film never pretends Hari is actually his wife. She knows herself that she isn’t the real Hari. She wants to understand why the original Hari killed herself and what she actually is. After Kris falls asleep again the colors suddenly become much warmer with all these reds. I interpreted this as Kris becoming emotionally alive again. At the beginning he almost felt emotionally dead, but Hari forces him to feel again. The scary part is that these warm colors don’t really represent hope. They’re comforting, but they’re also the result of an illusion. Then comes one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie. The birthday sequence. The dialogue here is absolutely phenomenal. It’s about humanity, fear and what it actually means to be human. Out of everyone on the station Kris is probably the most hopeless but also the most human because he’s the only one who actually spends time with his visitor instead of treating her like a monster. It almost feels like Tarkovsky is saying that abandoning the visitors also means abandoning a part of yourself. Watching Hari slowly become more human is honestly heartbreaking. She develops her own emotions, her own fears and her own love. At some point she even starts questioning her own identity because she doesn’t know if she’s Hari or someone completely different. Then she tries to kill herself again with liquid oxygen. Of course it doesn’t work because she always comes back, but that’s exactly what makes it so tragic. Kris thinks staying with her is helping both of them but in reality he’s also torturing her because she doesn’t want to exist like this. When Kris says, “I won’t return to Earth. We’ll live here, in the station,” I immediately knew he had officially lost his battle against grief. At this point he chooses the illusion over reality. His monologue about love is also one of the best I’ve ever heard. You can’t explain love. You have to feel it. Eventually Hari disappears with the help of the others. The colors become cold and grey again, showing that Kris is emotionally empty once more. At first it looks like Kris finally returned to Earth. He reconnects with his father and for a moment it feels like he found his humanity again. But then Tarkovsky hits you with that final shot. The camera slowly moves away and you realize he’s still on Solaris, living on one of the islands it created. For me Kris has one of the best character arcs oat. From beginning to end his story is honestly perfect. What I also love is how all of the film’s themes mirror each other. Humanity wants to explore space because, like Snaut says, we don’t really want to conquer space, we want a mirror. Kris wants exactly the same thing. He doesn’t want the real Hari back. He wants the version that exists inside his own memories. Solaris simply gives humanity exactly what it has always been searching for: itself. The film asks so many questions. What makes someone human? What actually gives someone an identity? Is limitless life really something we should want? Do we love people for who they really are or for the version we created in our own minds? Tarkovsky constantly contrasts nature with cold science. The endless nature shots almost feel like a celebration of life itself, while the station feels sterile, artificial and emotionally empty. One of the biggest messages I got from the film is that meaning isn’t found through endless scientific progress but through humanity, love and our connection to other people. I also love how the colors constantly reflect Kris’ emotional state. The cold blues dominate when he’s isolated and emotionally distant, while the warmer reds appear once Hari forces him to confront the emotions he tried to bury. The colors almost tell their own story alongside the characters. It’s been a long time since I paused a film this often. Not because I was confused, but because I wanted to think about what was happening on screen, what was happening inside the characters and what all the symbolism actually meant. That’s what I love about films. They take you on a journey for maybe two or three hours, but if they’re truly great they stay with you long after they’re over. They teach you something new about their characters but also about yourself. And that’s exactly why I love Tarkovsky. I also love the parallels to silent hill 2, my favorite story game oat.