In the Dust of the Stars (1976) User Reviews

It's really bad AND good at the same time--what a weird film!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 12 July 2008]

I had no idea that the East Germans had made sci-fi films and this was my introduction to them. In many ways, the movie really is bad but most of these ways actually make it rather fun to watch. And, in a few ways, the film actually was pretty good--the plot, after a while, actually turned out to be pretty good.

A space ship from planet Cynro arrives from across the galaxy in response to a distress call. The rocket, oddly, nearly crashes as it's landing. Despite the great distance they traveled, the inhabitants (the Temians) insist there is no emergency on their planet. Then they invite the members of the crew to come to a really, really stupid party--at which time, scantily clad women dance about in strangely choreographed ways that were laughably bad. In addition, the Temians used mind control beams to convince the Cynro that everything was fine and that they should return to their home planet at once. However, one member of the crew did not go to the party and get probed and he is shocked when later the rest of the crew are so quick to return home and ignore that a distress call DID come from the planet and that their emergency landing was actually caused by the Temians! Still, the crew refuse to listen--having had their minds gently scrambled. There's a lot more to the film as well as the secrets the Temians are trying to hide--but I'd rather not spoil your fun. Plus, this aspect of the movie really is interesting.

What I liked about the movie was its kitschy moments that seemed totally random. For example, in addition to lots of bad dancing, nudity was tossed in at the oddest moments and the leader (a fat bald guy) kept bizarrely changing his hair color for no particular reason. All the oddness was pretty silly and it did tend to distract from a decent overall plot. However, I am sure that bad film buffs will probably enjoy all this weirdness and have a good laugh at the tacky 1970s touches that abound in this freaky film.

By the way, though I DON'T want to divulge the plot, I could see some communist ideology there about the exploitation of the proletariat as well as parallels (believe it or not) to the Cold War.

Oddly compelling and silly at the same time.

Communist version of Flash Gordon?

[aventer-1 · 4/10 · 1 August 2009]

In case you wondered why Roger Corman scrapped the story line of German SF films he bought, watch one in its original form! This film is on par with Tom Baker era Dr. Who shows in most respects. Process shots, models, special effects are all pretty basic. Direction is very slow and the story predictable. Like many TV space operas, our explorers land amongst humanlike aliens, most of whom are enslaved by a mean tyrant. Fortunatly, they speak the explorers language, in this case, German. But instead of Ming the Merciless, its more like Clueless. Our tyrant boasts an army of about 20 guys, no real weapons except handguns, no death rays, no monsters, nada! He isn't even that mean. True, he makes the couple dozen natives of the planet mine some minerals or something with picks and shovels but there are no massacres or real evil deeds. His most violent act is to throw a hissy fit and trash his own bedroom.

Technically, Blakes Seven was way better. The sound effects and some of the background music as well are just oscillators going WWWWOOOOOO at different frequencies. The rocketship going out of control is cleverly suggested by flashing red lights and tilting the camera back and forth. The control room is full of big pilot lights all flashing in unison and signifying nothing. Considering the size of the control room set, the rocketship must be about 600 feet tall. It's never explained how people get in and out of this skyscraper of a space ship.

The entire population of the planet appears to be around 75 people. There are no cities, no factories, they never even show the tyrant's palace from the outside. There is only a little mine, equipped with 19th century style hardware. All the men apparently work in the mine and all the women dance on the leaders lawn all day long for his amusement. What do the people eat? Unlike Flash, the situation of tyrant/slaves/heroic space explorers/etc. is not resolved at the end of the film. You may well ask if there is another reel that somehow didn't get shown.

OK, maybe its unfair to dis a movie like this since the Communist film industry must have had a lot of problems. But if a clunker like this came from American International back in 1965 the critics would have panned it brutally. Its too dull and boring to be a lost gem and not wacky enough to be a cult classic. If I had to see stuff like this when I went to the movies I might have tried to tunnel out of the country too!

A good premise and start, but nothing more

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 9 August 2016]

"Im Staub der Sterne" or "In the Dust of the Stars" is an East German film from 1976, so it has its 40th anniversary this year. The writer and director is Gottfried Kolditz, one of the most known and most successful filmmakers from the GDR and next to the Sauerkraut western films, this one here is also among his most known works. Now this country is mostly known for black-and-white films and if there is color than it's usually still very bleak for a film. But this one here is an exception. It is a science fiction film that is packed with colorful sets and costumes. These should not distract from the evil characters and dark drama during these 98 minutes though.

I myself cannot say I enjoyed the watch too much. It was nice because it was something different occasionally, but never a really convincing watch. It is about a spaceship crew who helps planets who ask for their help, but during their newest mission they find out quickly that things are not exactly what they seem here. The acting is solid, but the script just did not feel (good) enough for a runtime over 60 minutes. It becomes pretty absurd occasionally and the storytelling and character writing could have been much better. i must say I liked the idea of the emergency call just being a trap and I also thought the bearded guy made a good antagonist, but in his quest for relevance Kolditz included even bigger more powerful villains the longer the film went and it became all fairly stereotypical and almost comical. This one is only worth seeing for the biggest SciFi fans. I am none of them and so I give it a thumbs-down.

Substandard or just a cheap budget? You decide.

[Bernie4444 · 3/10 · 9 December 2023]

A hokey implausible design spaceship picks up a distress signal from an unvisited planet TEM4. Naturally, they rush to the rescue to find ambivalent inhabitants (the Temians). "No, we did not send a distress call; we were just playing around with the radio."

While the crew is out hobnobbing with the friendly natives, the security officer back at the ship makes a subterranean discovery.

Is the spaceship Cyrno and its crew going to be good buddies with the BOS or are they doomed due to lack of flood insurance?

Maybe the pre-sci-fi or 50's feel is due to the film being produced at DEFA studios (East Germany) in the '70s.

The version I watched was German with English sub-titles. Very liberal sub-titles that can be annoying if you know any German at all (or English for that matter). In an attempt to paraphrase, they do not quite match the speech or intent.

Genre Of Its Own, but sometimes slow and uninspired

[s-heinzx · 7/10 · 7 May 2021]

In the second half, the film can't quite keep up with the promising beginning. Strengths of the film: quite generous sets, Ronk's wacky party brigade and all the excellently built scenery.

Weak points: unnecessary "spaceship" miniatures and the lengthy ending.

Obviously, the (Western) money ran out at a critical moment. Nevertheless and because of the handsome performances of the actresses (and some actors) it is worth seeing.

Wo ist RONK?

[iggman · 8/10 · 14 March 2004]

This is one of very few existing East-German sci-fi flicks, and it's certainly not lost its value of entertainment over the years. On the contrary, the film repeatedly makes the audience laugh hysterically, although sometimes without the intention of being funny.

The plot is quite simple: A crew of cosmonauts land on a foreign planet, investigating a radio signal, sent out asking for help. They reception they get from the native people on the arrival is however not as friendly as it first seems. Something fishy seems to be taking place underneath the planet's surface.

The film apparently had a reasonably high budget and some of the clothes and settings are actually cool. It's VERY much seventies, but not so much in a bad way. There is also some totally unprovoked nudity and the characters are hilarious.

I think probably most people should be able to enjoy this film in some aspect, at least those of us who still have a sense of humor childish enough to laugh at East-German bearded spacemen named RONK.

Ronk rules

[HEFILM · 10/10 · 23 September 2005]

This has a kind of Japanese Sci Fi craziness to it and a wanna be Star Trek plot. Creative, silly, constantly surprising, if better known it would be a major cult movie perhaps it will be one now that it is getting a DVD release. This is a pretty large scale production with at least a thousand extras in one scene and some huge location work. The costumes are typically over colorful and practically pop off the screen. Add to all this a number of outlandish alien dance numbers, purple hair,live snakes, a splash of full frontal female nudity, and of course the evil Ronk--who looks like James Cameron did in 1985 and you have a must see. Almost every other scene has some totally crazy left turn moment or element you won't see coming. Also a bonus the strangeo music and goofy sound FX that go right along with the over the top acting and strange blocking. Actors will suddenly sit down on the floor in the middle of a scene while talking for no reason. Don't pass let this film pass you by.

Hard to gauge how seriously to take the film

[philosopherjack · 12 January 2024]

The plot of Gottfried Kolditz's In the Dust of the Stars could have been plucked straight from episodic television: a spaceship of six crew members (four of them women, including the commander) touches down on an unknown planet in response to a distress call, only for their hosts to claim it was sent by accident; the crew laps up the local hospitality while preparing to depart, but then discovers that the call came from the planet's native inhabitants, now oppressed and forced underground to mine a rare mineral. Viewed in the present day, the film's allegorical aspects benefit hugely from the clear physical resemblance of the oppressors' leader to Vladimir Putin (although they have less in common behaviorally); that aside, it's rather hard to gauge how seriously to take the film. It often lacks even basic plausibility (for example, the crew members put themselves immediately in the hands of the planet-dwellers, including ingesting whatever's offered to them, without taking even minimal precautions) but the prevailing earnestness doesn't suggest (despite various mostly labored comedic touches) a parody or jape, and the overall thrust of the narrative is fairly politicized. But then it provides an array of peculiar visual flourishes, including the penchant of the local women for dancing in skimpily diaphanous outings (the movie seems well-resourced in some respects, but some of the special effects and other trappings are distinctly rickety), and the Putin character's mixing-board-like toy at which he sits and makes music (again with accompanying dancers always on call) while his giant pet snake slithers around. The film's ideological footprint is somewhat confused, broadly aligning itself with the resistance to the colonial occupiers, but seeming far more intrigued by the latter; it crafts its villains far more colourfully than its heroes, with the six cosmonauts having largely interchangeably non-descript personalities (one of them standing out only by virtue of an extended shower scene).