the twisting legacy of Andrzej Żuławski’s incomparable Possession • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

Everyone wants something from Anna. All the male figures in her life demand that she fulfill a role—lover, mother, wife; they seek to, ahem, possess her. The creature satiates Anna’s desire to break free of the identities imposed on her and to claim a self beyond them. So, is this what happens when that repression ferments, festers, grows? Like everything in Possession, it’s poisoned. As Lara observes, “We harbor our real monsters inside. Its tentacles that crawl into the world are but the reflections of our inner reality. How they manifest in the tangible world is but an afterthought, a mere outward consequence. The monster in Possession has never been the true reality, never been the true horror, and the film understands it.”

For all its bodily and marital symbolism, the film also reeks of religious panic. The title itself points to a spiritual takeover, a demonic seizure. As Mark utters in one scene, “For me, God is a disease.” Michael describes him as a man “fractured, his faith in family—a stand-in for his abandoned faith in God?—pulled apart like taffy.” Faith isn’t salvation; it’s infection. Even creation becomes contaminated: Anna’s creature is a miracle, a birth, a false savior. As Lizzy says, “Movies like this don’t happen under the supervision of God.” But the film doesn’t keep the rupture contained. It lets it spill out into the city itself.