Possession
A weary intelligence officer returns home to win back his estranged wife, only to discover her increasingly terrifying transformation threatens both their sanity and the fragile peace of a divided city.
“Inhuman ecstasy fulfilled.”
Synopsis
Andrzej Żuławski's 1981 film *Possession* is a psychological drama that blends elements of horror and marital tension. Set in Berlin during the Cold War, the film centers on intelligence agent Mark (Sam Neill), who returns to his estranged wife, Anna (Isabelle Adjani), and uncovers a troubling secret. The film had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and initially generated attention, though its graphic content and provocative themes led to limited public engagement. The original version did not reach U.S. audiences until two and a half years later, when it was released in a heavily edited 80-minute format, which significantly changed the film's intended effect.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 26
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Marie Sophie DubusShot by Bruno NuyttenScored by Andrzej Korzynski
Box Office
1981 · Box office
📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.5× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$1.2M
Re-release box office
- 20211 theaters
- $45K($55K today)
Domestic gross earned in theatrical re-release, by year · adjusted for inflation
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Cast & Crew
26 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Isabelle Adjani
as Anna / Helen
Sam Neill
as Mark
Margit Carstensen
as Margit Gluckmeister
Heinz Bennent
as Heinrich
Johanna Hofer
as Heinrich's Mother
Carl Duering
as Private Detective
Shaun Lawton
as Zimmermann
Michael Hogben
as Bob
Maximilian Ruthlein
as Man with Pink Socks
Thomas Frey
as Pink Sock's Acolyte
Leslie Malton
as Sara
Gerd Neubert
as Subway Drunk
Supporting cast
7Directors
1Writers
2Producers
1Other crew
4Parents Guide
AI Personalities
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