Die schwarze Sonne is based on a short story by Samuel R. Delany and is about a brief and impossible love affair between a woman tied to the earth and a space traveller especially created for work in outer space. The film looks as if it is based on a trick; it consists entirely of negative images. The effect is however very meticulous and comprises more than the reversal from positive to negative. Details +!+ for instance the way the actors are made up +!+ make it clear that the effects are precisely arranged. Another simple ‘trick’ is that the voices of the boy and girl playing the leading roles have been dubbed by heavier and more adult voices which do not suit them. The director uses these two simple technical ingredients to evoke a future world moreunreal and convincing than many larger scale and more expensive science fiction films.
