The documentary tells the story of Stanisław Lem, a writer who was born in Lviv, the worst place a person could have been born in, when taking into consideration the last century. The place could have been compared to what an American historian Timothy D. Snyder called ‘the land of blood’. It was a place, now the territory of Ukraine and Belarus, where both Hitler and Stalin left their criminal footprints. They both wanted to kill Stanislaw Lem, even though their justifications were different. Hitler, because the Lem family were of Jewish descent, Stalin on the other hand, because they considered themselves to be Polish. Neither of them was able to succeed, simply because of lack of time.
History is full of paradoxes and surprises, in a way both the Russians and the Germans compensated Lem for their war sins. It was them that got to read and appreciate Lem’s books first. Thanks to the publication of his works in Eastern Germany, the books made it through the Iron Curtain to Vienna and West Berlin, becoming a global success in no time.
The documentary tells the story of Lem’s life journey as well as the story of his books translated into a number of languages, and how some of his works were turned into films or even computer games. The writer is considered to be a great visionary who had predicted the appearance of nanotechnology, genetic engineering, the Internet, virtual reality and many other amazing things, even though he had no access to western press, solid scientific research or a special group of associates finding technological novelties for him. It would not be far from the truth to admit that the works of Lem have gained a cult status nowadays. Among 35 novels that he created, 27 million copies in 40 different languages have been sold worldwide so far. The golden era of Lem’s work took place in the 60s, a time when Polish culture was at its best as well. What may be seen as a paradox is that the time of communist dictatorship is also the time when the best masterpieces of Polish music, film and literature were created, among others the works of Krzysztof Penderecki, Andrzej Wajda, Ryszard Kapuściński or Krzysztof Komeda.
While presenting Lem, the production also depicts the 20th century Poland and Europe as well as complex dependencies between Polish culture and the rest of the world.
