They have bodies of light and come from a parallel plane of existence incompatible with our own.
They live a life we cannot comprehend, one freed from most of our material realities.
The only problem is that they need to recharge their energy levels at times, using the molten core of a planet.
Unfortunately, they did not notice that the hardened bits floating on the outside of the planet included a race of purely material beings. Nor did they realize what their presence would do to these people.
Not, that is, until one of them finds a way into their realm and kills one of the light beings with his sword…
Andras Rajnai was a sadly neglected footnote in the history of the Science Fiction and Fantasy films of the Seventies and Eighties. He spent years working at the Hungarian national television network, MTV, mastering the primitive analog electronic effects available at the time, before he finally got the chance to direct his own films.
While chromakey was rather limited in what it could do, he realized that the biggest problem was that those using it never bothered to learn how to use it right. And with the skills he developed he could combine multiple layers and create all sorts of unusual video effects. It is a bit of a shock if you compare his TV movies with, say, the Chromakey-heavy children’s series created by Sid and Marty Krofft.
What is perhaps a little harder to explain is his love of bold, psychedelic effects during a time when the Communist state was deeply suspicious of any Western trend.
Rajnai dreamed of making visual poems but was enough of a realist to see that he could only do this if he could master the tools he needed for the job.
And, even though his efforts met with only modest success, he was able to keep making these films for over twenty years because it was cheaper to make one of his fantasy epics than it was to make a standard TV movie, thanks to his bag of electronic tricks.
He obviously had a better budget for Atlantisz than he had for most of his films as not only does it have extensive modelwork (and half the characters had to be shown with an electronic filter to convey the idea that they were just solidified light), but the film includes a surprising amount of location footage (many of his films are completely studio bound). This includes a lot of shots of tropical islands, complete with palm trees, and a icy river journey in a snow covered land. He credits both the Cuban and Finnish TV networks for their help: while I suspect the Cubans may just have provided some stock footage, the Finnish footage clearly was shot for this film. Rajnai might just have sent a crew, that small boat and a few extras off to film that sequence. It is all filmed in the middle distance so I’m not entirely certain that the leader of the expedition isn’t his star.
But we never do see his face clearly.
Rajnai saw modern storytelling as an extension of the ancient tradition of myth and legend, and he frequently drew from such stories in his work. However, this time around, while he refers to ancient tales of a long lost civilization (I’m not entirely certain he ever uses the word “Atlantis” at any point in the story) in the opening and closing narration, the basics of the story are more science fiction than myth. There are no familiar mythical figures here, nor does any of what we see or hear match any version of the Atlantis myth I’ve come across.
Instead, we have a story about a tragic miscalculation, about radically different realities colliding with disastrous effects, about terrible moral dilemmas, a very Jungian take on the development of human societies, and, yes, ultimately, the utter destruction of the alien’s own people and the human beings who live in this tropical paradise.
As with any science fiction film made behind the Iron Curtain during the Soviet Era, it is very talky. Nor, as a stage bound TV production, is there much action. But the ideas are intelligent, and the entire story is unlike anything you would have found on American TV at the time.
Rajnai was a true visionary. It’s a shame he couldn’t get anyone to listen.
As rare and impossible as his TV movies have been to find, at least, for once, this one is easy.
After all, it is available on Archive.org, with an imperfect but serviceable set of English subs…
rivets on the poster 
Glad to see someone else watching Rajnai productions in 2024.
I’ve just sent a fanzine off to the printer about Rajnai and his work. The two of us may be the sum total of English-language writing about Rajnai. Get in touch, and I’ll send a copy your way when it’s printed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one, LOL, although I’m doing the best I can to tell everyone else about him! I would dearly love to see your fanzine! Drop a message on this page (I don’t want my contact info visible here) — https://rivetsontheposter.wordpress.com/marks-wish-list/ — and I’ll tell you where to send it. Keep up the great work!
LikeLike