"Possession starts on a hysterical note, stays there and surpasses it as the film progresses." - VARIETY

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Masterpiece of horror and suspense, this film follows the breaking down of a relationship with events going from the strange to the supernatural. 

PLOT: THE BREAKDOWN OF A RELATIONSHIP

During a secretive business trip away, Mark learns that his wife Anna is growing restless in what he believed was their happy marriage. Upon his return home, he learns from her that she wants a divorce. They both go through a series of different emotions related to their situation. Caught in the middle is their infant son Bob, who Mark uses as a gage to Anna's mental state. 

Anna states that her want for the divorce is not because of another man, but Mark finds out that Anna has a lover named Heinrich. In the meantime, Mark also meets Bob's teacher Helen, who looks exactly like Anna…the film then grows stranger and stranger into supernatural violence.

"The movie depicts the breakdown of all acceptable behavior and, ultimately, narrative logic itself." - CHICAGO READER

BANNED IN THE UK, CUT DOWN FOR THE US RELEASE

This "nightmarish [film] became an immediate cult classic, even though it was shorn of so much of its sex and violence for its initial US release that it lost a third of its running time." - HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE

REVIEWS - FILM DESCRIBED AS A HORROR MASTERPIECE

The film is generally seen as a masterpiece of horror and as one of Zulawski's best films:

"Possession starts on a hysterical note, stays there and surpasses it as the film progresses. There are excesses on all fronts: in supposedly ordinary married life and then occult happenings, intricate political skulduggery with the infamous Berlin Wall as background – they all abound in this horror-cum-political-cum – psychological tale." - VARIETY

"The final third of the movie is so nightmarish it's difficult to synopsize at all." - CHICAGO READER

"Possession is Zulawski's most fully realized effort and probably the best introduction to his work." - CHICAGO READER

"Here Zulawski blends Polanskiesque uncanny and Bergmanian psychodrama with the then-burgeoning subgenre of body horror associated with Alien and early Cronenberg.." - HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE

"Although it’s easy to see why it was pigeonholed as a horror film, its first half presents what is still one of the most viscerally vivid portraits of a disintegrating relationship yet committed to film, comfortably rivalling Lars von Trier’s Antichrist, David Cronenberg’s The Brood and Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage.” - SIGHT AND SOUND

"Possession is not a film for the weak of heart, and even for the most seasoned horror or gore hound, it hits an uncomfortable note of emotional reality." - SOUND ON SIGHT

AWARDS

Cannes Film Festival - Best Actress for Isabelle Adjani

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR: ANDREZJ ZULAWSKI

"Zulawski has created some of the most original, unpredictable, and downright terrifying of modern European movies. " - CHICAGO READER

- Andrezj Zulawski was born in 1940 and is a Polish director

- He studied filmmaking in France in the 1950s

- In is generally known for making "violent art-house" films

- His more famous films include Mad Love (1985), My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days (1989) and The Blue Note (1991)

- His latest film was released in 2000: Fidelity is based on the 17th century novel La Princesse de Cleves

TICKETS

On the door: £5 / £3.50 (conc)

ADVANCE TICKETS ONLINE: £4.50 / £3 (concessions) here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/209328