O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization
Entry updated 13 July 2026. Tagged: Film.
Polish film (1985; original title O-bi, o-ba. Koniec cywilizacji). Zespol Filmowy "Perspektywa". Directed and written by Piotr Szulkin. Actors include Krystyna Janda, Krzysztof Majchrzak, Jan Nowicki, Jerzy Stuhr and Marek Walczewski. 86 minutes. Colour.
Frustrated when the Post-Holocaust survivors of a global nuclear World War Three try to carry on as normal, one government responds with Messiah figures who promise salvation in the form of an ark if people take shelter in a dome atop a mountain. As a result, there are now about 850 people in the bunkers beneath the dome, protected from radiation and the Nuclear Winter outside; unfortunately the dome is in poor condition and cracks are appearing. Within, most people spend their time shuffling around and awaiting the arrival of the ark. Food – some of it made from pulped books – is rationed, and there is a black market in canned goods and suchlike (see Economics). The tannoy repeatedly insists there is no ark, but most believe it is coming: some expect a Spaceship, others some more like Noah's Ark.
Soft (Stuhr) was one of those employed as a messiah; now he is the dome's fixer, dealing with problems calmly and intelligently, keeping conflict to a minimum, and is one of the few who knows and accepts that no ark is coming. During the film we watch Soft interact with others in the dome; most are passive, except when there is a prospect of food, and slowly dying off; the few with jobs go through the motions; the most dynamic, aside from black marketeers, are those in varying states of madness. One has created his own ark in a room; another (Majchrzak) intends to use a refrigerated unit as a safe room when the dome collapses and await the ark's arrival, arguing it will be relatively warmer than the outside. He has also frozen two young women in the unit's freezer, in the hope that the ark's technology will be able to revive them (see Cryonics). Soft locks him in the unit.
The main plot concerns a major crack appearing in the dome and Soft being tasked with persuading the only engineer (Nowicki) to repair it. The problem is that the engineer has sunk so deep into apathy that he refuses: he believes in the ark – or rather, the comfort of believing in the ark – even though acknowledging Soft's arguments that it does not exist. Soft decides to stir up Religious feeling to engage people, particularly the engineer, and goes to the library to find a Bible for hints – but the librarian says that only politically approved texts have been saved; the Bible had been thrown out as fiction and pulped. Next he seeks and finds someone who helped construct the dome, only to be told it was so poorly built it is unrepairable; but, they add, somewhere within it is an aeroplane.
The only person Soft really cares about is Gea (Janda) a prostitute (see Sex) who loves him too; but when he goes to tell her the good news, his arrival distracts her and she falls to her death (this scene is somewhat contrived). Though distraught, he locates the plane, only to find it has been scavenged and its metal used to make coins. The man responsible points out that, even if it was working, it could only fit 200 at best, so how was he planning to select who would be passengers? However, part of the dome now collapses and everyone rushes towards the gap, believing the ark has arrived. Soft goes through the hole and walks out onto the snow (no one else is to be seen, perhaps having collapsed and died); looking up he sees a hot-air Balloon with Gea in the basket; she throws down a rope ladder which he climbs to join her. Looking down, he sees himself still on the ground looking up; from the latter's perspective we see the balloon depart, and Soft traipses off through the snow. Soft's boss (Walczewski) believed the people in the dome were the last of humanity; if so – taking the balloon to be a hallucination – Soft might be the Last Man.
As with Szulkin's two earlier sf films, Golem (1979) and The War of the Worlds: Next Century (1981), the subject is really contemporary Polish society. As with the earlier films, the government operates by lying to the people, while it is implied that the population are complacent and complicit in their own exploitation. In O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization those in charge seem less overtly evil than in the other works; but they are Paranoid, insane, without imagination and increasingly at the end of their tether. THe exception for Soft, who us actually competent; but for the situation he finds himself in, this is not enough. Save for a few clumsy moments – such as Gea's death – this is a very good film, with a nice performance from Stuhr, whose determination prevents the journey from being too bleak. [SP]
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