General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Sexmission

Sexmission (Polish: Seksmisja) is a 1983 Polish science-fiction comedy directed and co-written by Juliusz Machulski, in which two men frozen in a hibernation experiment wake in 2044 to find themselves the last males in an underground society of women. Premiered in Polish cinemas on 14 May 1984, it became one of the most popular and most quoted films in Polish film history and is widely read as a satire of totalitarian society.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Production	Poland, 1983; Studio Filmowe "Kadr"; directed by Juliusz Machulski; screenplay by Machulski, Jolanta Hartwig-Sosnowska, and Pavel Hajný¹^•³
Premiere	14 May 1984 (Polish theatrical release)¹
Runtime	116 minutes, color¹
Lead cast	Olgierd Łukaszewicz as Albert Starski, Jerzy Stuhr as Maks Paradys, Bożena Stryjkówna as Lamia, Wiesław Michnikowski as Her Excellency¹
Setting	Hibernation in 1991; awakening on 8 March 2044 in an underground matriarchy after nuclear war³
Major honors	Gdańsk festival 1984 jury award and production design award; Golden Duck 1985; Special Golden Duck 2008 as Polish comedy of the century¹
Soviet release	Retitled The New Amazons, cut by almost half an hour; Machulski estimates around 40 million Soviet viewers²

Spoilers

Plot

In 1991, volunteers Albert (Olgierd Łukaszewicz) and Max (Jerzy Stuhr) enter the first human hibernation experiment, expecting to sleep for about three years. Nuclear war breaks out during their sleep, and they wake on 8 March 2044 in a world where men have died out and women reproduce by parthenogenesis (reproduction without males, from unfertilized eggs), living in artificial conditions deep underground.³^•⁴

Treated as archaeological finds and research specimens, the two men become objects of rivalry between the Archeo and Genetix sections, under the observation of Dr. Lamia (Bożena Stryjkówna). The dictator of the women's state, Her Excellency (Wiesław Michnikowski), takes particular interest in them. After capture, the men face "naturalization," a forced sex change; Lamia frees them, and the three escape in special suits to the surface, where beyond a giant tent creating an artificial horizon a normal, sunlit world exists. The women's state turns out to be a fabrication maintained by Her Excellency, in reality an impotent man living in a luxury villa. Max and Albert sabotage the newborn hatchery, and the first boy is born.³

Production

Machulski conceived the idea in October 1977 while working on the screenplay for Vabank, originally titling the new screenplay Lamia after its leading female character; at the time he did not expect the chance to produce it.²^•⁵ After the success of Vabank, the Kadr studio head Jerzy Kawalerowicz, one of the preeminent Polish filmmakers of the era, asked what Machulski wanted to make next. A planned film about the poet Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński fell through when Andrzej Wajda's studio X closed during Martial Law, and Kawalerowicz preferred the Lamia idea.²

Kawalerowicz was embarrassed by the genre: fantasy was unusual and difficult to produce for Polish cinema, and a joint project with Czechoslovakia's Barrandov studios was considered before it collapsed, partly because Czech filmmakers were perturbed that the plot was set in the near-future year 2044. The Polish censors, who found sedition in many scripts, judged the project relatively harmless, and Machulski proceeded with production in 1982.²

The film was made on a modest budget with set design by Janusz Sosnowski, cinematography by Jerzy Łukaszewicz, music by Henryk Kuźniak, and editing by Mirosława Garlicka.¹ Critics later praised its "remarkable, clever (and cheap!)" production design.¹

Reception and censorship

When Sexmission opened in 1984 it captivated audiences and critics alike, and it became the hit of the decade in 1980s Polish cinema.¹^•⁶ Machulski combined comedy with a satire on totalitarianism and feminism, and reviewers traced influences from Sławomir Mrożek's Ambassador, Fellini's City of Women, and Stanisław Tym's play Laundry.¹ The Polish Film Academy account describes it as a model commercial film that also carried deeper reflections, and the Kadr studio describes it as both a pastiche of the sci-fi genre and a metaphor for a totalitarian regime, a satire on the reality of martial law in Poland.⁷

Phrases from the film, such as "Einstein was a woman!" and "A male is your enemy!", entered everyday Polish speech.² In a 1999 poll by the weekly Polityka on the most interesting Polish films of the twentieth century, it placed third, and in 2008 it received a Special Golden Duck as Polish comedy of the century.¹

Soviet distribution. The authorities in the Soviet Union received the film coldly. Censors would not permit release under the provocative title Sexmission, so it was shown as The New Amazons, with almost half an hour cut, including every scene with erotic undertones and many political allusions. Soviet audiences nonetheless recognized it as a satire of a totalitarian state, and Machulski himself estimated that around 40 million people saw it in the USSR.²

Awards

Polish Feature Film Festival Gdańsk 1984: jury Grand Prix (Silver Lions) for Machulski and the production design award for Janusz Sosnowski¹^•⁶
Warsaw Mermaid 1984¹
Golden Duck 1985; Film Distribution Company awards at Gdańsk 1985 and Łagów 1985¹
Chicago International Film Festival 1984: nomination for the Gold Hugo; Fantasporto 1986: nomination for the International Fantasy Film Award⁶

Legacy

After Sexmission, Machulski was established as a leading comedy writer in Poland, and the film remains one of the most beloved and quotable movies in Polish film history.² A 2K restoration was completed in 2010, and the film has circulated on streaming platforms including Netflix and Canal+.⁶^•⁸ Scholarly readings have noted that while the film criticized the political system, it offered little critique of the conservative gender order of its time, which may explain why its anti-communist message initially went unnoticed by some viewers.⁹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films of the 1980s › Released 1980 to 1985

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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