dir. Andrzej Zulawski, France/Germany, 1981, 35mm, 123 mins, color

While it is, in many respects, a horror film (and certainly a horrific film), Possession is as much an exploration of psychological extremes. Isabelle Adjani leaves her family for an unspecified reason. Husband Sam Neill is determined to find out the truth and starts following her. At first he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he discovers strange behavior and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.

The stark West Berlin location photography by Bruno Nuytten only adds to the characters’ (and the viewer’s) sense of displacement. Possession barely arrived on American shores in the early 1980s in a truncated form that attempted to sell it as a conventional horror film. In the UK, Possession was banned for many years as a “video nasty.” Here is a rare opportunity to see this caustic underground classic in a newly-struck, uncut, and pristine 35mm print.