Eureka Video explores STRANGE NEW WORLDS: SCIENCE FICTION AT DEFA (review)

In East Germany, DEFA Studios proposed a Utopian take on science fiction compared to the dystopian West.  In THE SILENT STAR - better known in the U.S. as FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS - an international expedition to Venus traces an alien signal.  In SIGNALS: A SPACE ADVENTURE, a captain uses a routine repair mission to scour the ends of the galaxy for another ship that mysterious broke up in a meteor shower.  In EOLOMEA, eight ships vanish from the same base and a female scientist suspects one of her mentors knows more than he claims with regard to an old project rejected by the U.N.  In IN THE DUST OF STARS, a rocket responds to an emergency call on a distant planet but its inhabitants are a pleasure-loving bunch whose seductive surface hides an ugly secret.

REVIEW LINK: Eureka Video (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

STRANGE NEW WORLDS - SCIENCE FICTION AT DEFA Blu-ray specs:

• Disc One - The Silent Star:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 Widescreen
• German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove
• "Red Skies" interview with Soviet cinema expert Claire Knight
• "Robot" 1968 animated short by Klaus Georgi, produced by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
• "British Filmmaker Visits DEFA" 1959 newsreel documenting Anthony Asquith's visit to the set
• "A Rocket in the Soviet Zone" 1959 newsreel covering the making of "The Silent Star"
• German Theatrical Trailer 
• "Strange New Worlds" Box Set Trailer
• Disc Two:
• Signals - A Space Adventure:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 Widescreen
• German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove
• Eolomea:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.20:1 Widescreen
• German LPCM 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove
• "Blast Off" interview with science fiction scholar Mark Bould
• "Jana and the Little Star" 1971 animated short by Christl Wiemer, produced by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
• "Cosmonaut Dreams - Made in Babelsberg" documentary featuring special-effects cameraman Kurt Marks, costume designer Barbara Müller-Braumann, and technician Jan-Peter Schmarje
• German Theatrical Trailer
• Disc Three - In the Dust of the Stars:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 Pillarboxed Widescreen
• German LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove
• "Marx Attacks" video essay by film scholar Daniel Jonah Wolpert
• "Love 2002" 1972 DEFA documentary short by Joachim Hellwig
• "Dusting Off After 30 Years" 1990 interview with cinematographer Peter SuringGerman 
• Theatrical Trailer
• Limited collector's edition of 2,000 copies including a hardcase featuring new artwork by Carly A-F and 60-page collector’s book featuring an introduction by Mariana Ivanova, Academic Director of the DEFA Film Library, and new writing by DEFA historians Sebastian Heiduschke, Sonja Fritzsche and Evan Torner.