It’s certainly possible that most remembrances of the recently deceased Andrzej Żuławski heavily focused on Possession because that’s his only film to leave a notable cultural footprint, yet this should be considered: one title can make such an impact on viewers that, in turn, the creator’s passing becomes an event. We are, after all, talking about the rare work that feels genuinely crazy, flitting from one horror and grotesquerie — and, most importantly, the ideas and emotions they might foster — so fast that most don’t quite know what to do with it once the credits have rolled, save for an utterance along the lines of, “Man, that was nuts.”
If one of Possession‘s most commonly cited powers is the sense that we’re watching an object beamed from another world, a look at its creation should be of great interest. Appropriately titled The Other Side of the Wall: The Making of Possession, this Daniel Bird-helmed documentary examines origins and meanings with (a very candid) Żuławski, co-writer Frederic Tuten, producer Marie-Laure Reyre, and camera operator Andrzej Jaroszewicz, balancing between practical know-how and certain specificities that might otherwise be impenetrable for a modern-day viewer. Don’t worry about this sullying the mystery; by the time it’s done, Possession might only seem greater.
Click below to view (and if doesn’t play, head over to Vimeo):