Eolomea
is sort of like utopia or Erehwon, except it really might exist—maybe. It is
one of the great debates of Prof. Maria Scholl’s age, but she is more concerned
with the recent rash of vanished cargo ships. As she pursues her investigation,
she will need the help of her summer fling in Hermann Zschoche’s Eolomea, which screens during the Film
Society of Lincoln Center new series, Strange Lands: International Sci-Fi.
In
a case of rotten timing, yet another space freighter loses contact with space
station Margot just as Scholl is giving her report to the UN-like council of
interplanetary busybodies. Strangely, her toughest critic, Prof. Oli Tal, seems
to know all the details already, including the presence of his daughter on the
latest missing vessel.
Tal
was not always such a bureaucratic boor. He was once a hotshot flight officer,
who was keen to initiate an expedition to Eolomea. Unfortunately, he could
never entirely prove its existence, so no mission was ever authorized.
Ironically, Tal becomes one of Scholl’s friendlier associates, as she
diplomatically probes him for the truth. At least, he will meet her for lovely
picnics and a spot of witty repartee. Still, he is no substitute for Dan Lagny,
the disgruntled moonbase crewmember, whom she met during a recent seaside holiday.
Although Lagny wanted to resign (and perhaps pursue a serious relationship with
Scholl), he is too talented for Scholl to approve his release. Indeed, she will
be quite glad to rendezvous with him when she lights off to Margot herself.
Of
the major science fiction films produced by the East German studio DEFA, Eolomea is the critical redheaded
stepchild, but it is really the best of the lot. Frankly, its withering
depiction of a risk-averse bureaucracy stifling space exploration feels more
John Galt than Erich Honecker (but perhaps the space station was a hat tip to
his wife Margot). It also presents a rather crummy, dysfunctional vision of the
future, not so very different from the GDR’s crummy, dysfunctional socialist
present.
Yet,
in subtle ways, it portrays how mankind has yet to emotionally acclimate to the
interstellar age. This is particularly acute in the case of Pilot Kun, Lagny’s
grizzled old comrade. Surprisingly, Eolomea
is quite touching, serving as an elegy to the relationships and connections
that were ultimately not meant to be.
As
Scholl, Dutch actress Cox Habbema carries the film with grace, smartly playing
off Rolf Hoppe’s Tal and Ivan Andonov’s Lagny. Hoppe (seen in Volker Schlöndorff’s
English language Palmetto and a raft
of German television productions) is a standout as the exasperating but
charming Tal, while Vsevolod Sanayev nicely embodies the film’s increasingly
confused human element as old Kun.
