Possession
In divided Berlin, a collapsing marriage turns into a fever dream of jealousy, double identities, political unease and monstrous transformation. Żuławski blends raw emotional breakdown with surreal body horror, creating one of the most intense and uncategorizable films to brush against the nasty era.
Film details
| Original / alt title | Possession |
| Year | 1981 |
| Director | Andrzej Żuławski |
| Country | France / West Germany |
| Runtime | Approx. 124 min |
| Main cast | Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Heinz Bennent, Margit Carstensen |
UK status
Possession appeared on the DPP 72 and was dropped rather than successfully prosecuted.
Passed 18 uncut in 1999.
Why it caused controversy
UK censorship / Video Nasties history
A quick status check first, followed by the film’s censorship timeline. A DPP prosecution was an obscenity case against a particular video publication — it was not automatically the same thing as a permanent nationwide “ban”.
Detailed censorship timeline & facts
FACTS & TRIVIA
- Isabelle Adjani won major acclaim for her ferocious dual performance.
- Sam Neill has often described the shoot as extremely demanding.
- The Berlin Wall setting gives the film a political and emotional split-screen quality.
- The subway breakdown scene is one of the most discussed moments in modern horror cinema.
- Possession sits far closer to art cinema than to ordinary exploitation fare.
- Its DPP listing ended in the dropped section of the 72.
Distributor / VHS label
VTC / Video Tape Center (cover shown).
Trailer
Open a search for the original theatrical / VHS-era trailer. This keeps the archive linking to publicly available trailer sources rather than hosting copyrighted film footage.
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