"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.

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.

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.

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.