Russian cinema has an inspired tradition of genre filmmaking that has yielded a treasure-trove of cult classics from the Soviet era. A term coined in Russia, “film fantastika” describes a pioneering body of science-fiction and fantasy films that inspired and influenced several generations of visual storytellers in motion pictures.

Made in 1924, the granddaddy of all these sci-fi classics (and the Metropolis of Russian cinema) is Yakov Protazanov’s Aelita: Queen Of Mars (screening on May 10 with live piano by Philip C. Carli). In a plot that mirrors the Soviet’s own successful revolution, Aelita follows a Martian princess’s plot to overthrow her father, whose exploitation of the working class is dividing her intergalactic kingdom.

In Mikhail Karyukov and Aleksandr Kozyr’s 1959 gem, The Heavens Call (May 17), Soviet visual-effects pioneers created stunning visions of man’s voyage to outer space almost a decade before Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: 
A Space Odyssey. The Heavens Call and Pavel Klushatsev’s Planet of Storms (May 24) did end up on Western screens—albeit dubbed and edited beyond recognition with new, exploitative titles: Battle Beyond the Sun and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. Enterprising US producers purchased these Soviet science-fiction films cheaply at the height of the Cold War and many up-and-coming American directors (like Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Bogdanovich, among others) had a hand in refashioning these classy Russian films for American B-movie audiences.

Perhaps the most widely known and distributed Russian filmmaker of the Soviet era, Andrei Tarkovsky made two great sci-fi epics, Solaris and Stalker, the latter of which will screen May 20. Last, but definitely not least, Richard Viktorov’s To the Stars by Hard Ways (May 31) was released in 1981, just a few years before the fall of the USSR. Its deliriously crazy plot involving robotic humanoids and 
cosmic mercenaries has earned the movie a cult following among today’s Russian hipsters.

This series will feature restored and brand-new prints of the uncut original Russian-language versions with English subtitles, allowing US sci-fi fans to experience these films as they were originally presented.