''Inquest of Pilot Pirx'' ( pl, Test pilota Pirxa, russian: Дознание пилота Пиркса, Doznaniye pilota Pirksa, et, Navigaator Pirx) is a joint Polish- Soviet 1979 film directed by . It is based on the

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

"The Inquest" by

Stanisław Lem Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fiction stories are of satirical ...

from his 1968 short story collection ''Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie'' ('' Tales of Pirx the Pilot''; the story was translated into English in the second part, ''More Tales of Pirx the Pilot'').Marek Piestrak: widzowie nie zawiedli
interview by DAREK KUŹMA It was adapted for film by Vladimir Valutsky. It is a joint production by Zespoly Filmowe, and

Tallinnfilm Tallinnfilm is the oldest surviving film studio in Estonia. It was founded as Estonian Culture Film in 1931, and was nationalized in 1940 after Estonia was forced into the Soviet Union. During the first year of Soviet Occupation (1940–1941) ...

. Some of the studio-based filming was done at the Dovzhenko Film Studios.

Plot summary

Spaceship pilot Pirx is hired for a mission to test probes to be placed in the Cassini Division, a gap between

rings of Saturn The rings of Saturn are the most extensive ring system of any planet in the Solar System. They consist of countless small particles, ranging in size from micrometers to meters, that orbit around Saturn. The ring particles are made almost entir ...

, while the real secret goal was to evaluate some ''nonlinears'' ( androids with "non linear" characteristics) for use as crew members on future space flights. The mission meets with a near disaster and the human crew are almost killed. Upon returning to Earth there is an inquest to determine if Pirx was responsible for the accident. Pirx recounts the events and in the end it is established that one of the robots caused the malfunction of a probe and attempted to pass through the Division to launch the probe manually, an attempt which would kill the human crew members and prove the superiority of ''nonlinears'' over humans.

Cast

* Sergei Desnitsky as ''Commandor Pirx'' * Aleksandr Kaidanovsky as ''Tom Nowak'', neurologist and cyberneticist *

Vladimir Ivashov Vladimir Sergeyevich Ivashov (russian: Влади́мир Серге́евич Ивашо́в; 28 August 1939 — 23 March 1995) was a Soviet and Russian actor. Biography He had a film career that spanned over 30 years. He is best known for hi ...

as ''Harry Brown'', 2nd Pilot * Tõnu Saar as ''Kurt Weber'', nucleonicist engineer * Igor Przegrodzki as ''McGuirr'' * Boleslaw Abart as ''Jan Otis'', electronicist * Janusz Bylczynski as head judge * Mieczysław Janowski as ''Mitchell'' *

Jerzy Kaliszewski Jerzy Kaliszewski (June 8, 1912 – May 31, 1990) was a Polish actor, recipient of multiple awards. Filmography * ''Doctor Murek'' (1939) * ''Unvanquished City'' (1950) * ''Youth of Chopin'' (1952) * ''Stawka większa niż życie'' (1968) ...

as ''Dr. Kristoff'' * Zbigniew Lesien as ''John Calder'', 1st Pilot * Ferdynand Matysik as ''Green'', the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Director

Discussion

In this tale Lem puts forth the idea that what is perceived a human weakness is in fact an advantage over a perfect machine. Pirx defeats the robot because a human can hesitate, make wrong decisions, have doubts, but a robot cannot., "Lem on Film". In: Polish film critic Krzysztof Loska thinks that the film adaptation unduly shifted Lem's original focus on the definition of humanity to the trope of robot rebellion.

Reception

''Inquest of Pilot Pirx '' was awarded the "Golden Asteroid" Big Prize at the International Cinema Festival at

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

1979.Eva Näripea
Transnational Spaces of Science Fiction: An Estonian-Polish coproduction The Test of Pilot Pirx (Test pilota Pirxa / Navigaator Pirx, 1978)
''Kinokultura'', 2010

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Inquest of Pilot Pirx 1979 drama films Robot films 1970s science fiction drama films Polish science fiction drama films Soviet science fiction drama films Films based on works by Stanisław Lem Films based on short fiction Tallinnfilm films Soviet multilingual films Polish multilingual films Poland–Soviet Union relations 1979 multilingual films Soviet-era Estonian films Estonian drama films Films with screenplays by Vladimir Valutsky Saturn in film Films set on spacecraft Android (robot) films