Polish author Stanislaw Lem is the pre-eminent figure in East European science fiction. As well as writing Solaris (1971), Lem penned a series of stories based around cosmonaut Commander Pirx, including “Inquiry” which was adapted into this ambitious Polish-Russian-Estonian co-production. In the future, a joint venture between the western United Atomic Laboratories and eastern Cybertronics corporations produces a line of seemingly perfect humanlike robots - referred to as “non-linears” - intended to work in deep space. To counteract negative press, objections from the public and trade unions, and demonstrate the superiority of their robots, scientists initiate an experiment wherein Commander Pirx (Sergei Desnitsky), known for his honesty and integrity, is sent on a space mission with five crewmen - one of whom is secretly a robot. His task is to identify which one.
Not so much a whodunit as a who-is-it, Test Pilot Pirx weaves a nice line in Seventies sci-fi paranoia, stirring elements from Capricorn One (1978) and The Parallax View (1974) with a more cerebral take on Futureworld (1976). Well-paced, the sleek, expansive yet ever so slightly oppressive production design envisions a future where co-operation between East and West is grudging at best but corporate greed is tempered by the down-to-earth good sense, shrewd insight and pragmatism of our rugged (Pirx is introduced ascending a snowy mountaintop) but believably human hero. Director/co-scripter Marek Pestrak kicks things off with an impressively ominous tracking shot, encircling the elaborate laboratory where scientists assemble their android, and early on throws in a car chase and tense sequences where Pirx is stalked by robots who resemble those Doctor Who favourites, the Autons, enhanced by Arvo Pyart’s epic score which is worthy of a James Bond movie.
Once the action hits outer space, the pace grows more measured; dour, but involving, intelligent although less metaphysically inclined than Andrei Tarkovsky’s exploits in the genre. Pirx scrutinises his crewmen with sly wit, but his task is complicated when 2nd Pilot Harry Brown (Vladimir Ivashov) maintains he is human and offers to help identify the real “non-linear”, while physician Tom Nowak (Aleksandr Kaidanovsky) comes out as a robot, though our hero has his doubts. Asked what he learnt once his secret was discovered by a terrified nurse, Nowak deadpans: “I learned it is easier to work with men.” Which, if he is non-human, implies his is the first artificial intelligence to develop sexism. Remaining crew members: John Calder (Zbigniew Lesien), Jan Otis (Boleslaw Abart) and engineer Kurt Weber (Tõnu Saar) are a suitably shifty lot, with a faintly perceptible satirical aspect considering how hard Pirx finds it to tell rigid followers of Communist doctrine apart from robots.
That said, the film reinforces a few Soviet era preconceptions about western culture with the U.A.L. schemers all sharp-suited, gum-chewing capitalist scum and a bizarre prelude to the mission where Brown dallies with topless disco dancers, presumably included to illustrate why western pop music is decadent atonal mush (providing the sole bum note amidst Pyart’s exemplary score). A more damaging flaw occurs when the film abruptly casts off its corporate espionage subplot in favour of revealing the android’s ill-defined homicidal impulses. In a rather silly scene, the masked machine-man compiles an animated video to inform Pirx of his murderous intentions, on which he rants like a student demonstrator (“your ideals are laughable and democracy is a parade of fools”) with a leather fetish and inexplicable access to an Avid. Two thirds in, this space odyssey switches to a courtroom inquiry, with Pirx on trial for incompetence while the action plays in flashback. This slightly muddles the big revelation and clever contrasts between rational robots and human cunning, but the story concludes with a nice balance of paranoia and pragmatism. While a handful of miniature spaceships don’t bear close scrutiny, the special effects are largely well crafted and the sets are excellent.
