This is a tough one. I'm trying to identify a Sci-Fi movie I saw at least a decade ago. I only remember fragments, and some points might be false, but I hope it's still possible.

  • From the late '80s, or '90s
  • It plays on a world that is separated in dark and light, possibly because the planet is tidally locked. People can only live in the dark, either on the dark side or underground.
  • The darkness is driving people crazy. I remember clearly that at one point, someone loses it and goes into the light. He burns immediately to ashes.
  • There's a guy who smuggles people from A to B (probably off the planet, or to a safe spot in the light)
  • There are illegal / contraband "postcards" that people are trading. Some people seem addicted to them. They could be pictures of the world before whatever catastrophe happened to it, showing sunny beaches etc... But for all I know, they could have just been pictures of pin up girls :-)
  • I think the move was called something like "Half Earth", but I can't find anything under that name.

It was not White Dwarf, and it was not Dark City, although it was similar in mood to Dark City. It had a weird B-movie vibe, a bit like Millenium or other Sci-Fi films of the late 80s. I hope this rings a bell with someone.

  • 4
    Roger Zelazny wrote a great novel called Jack of Shadows, which had a tide-locked earth. But people on the darkside, had magical abilities. Also, it was (sadly) never made into a movie - the site mentions only an un-produced animated movie script. – John C Feb 22 '13 at 19:45
  • any idea if it was a TV movie? And was it [originally] in English? – Solemnity Feb 23 '13 at 2:27
  • I saw it late at night on German TV. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a German movie though, but can't say if it was originally English either. I would guess it was either English (American) or French, and not direct-to-TV. – jdm Feb 23 '13 at 10:45

Halbe Welt

A German scifi movie from 1993. I came across it after running a google search on 'halbe erde' (it's not my native language):

Translation of the description:

Half World, 6 o'clock in the morning: Sirens howling. The streets are emptying. Windows are darkened. People seek refuge underground. The sirens fall quiet, silence falls. Over a lifeless city, the sun rises and casts its deadly light on the Half World. Twelve hours later: Sunset, sirens give the all-clear, life is starting -- good night. The movie showcases different survival techniques in an artificial world: Action, love, sex and violence. In the metropolises of the Half World, a culture of different languages and lifeforms is sprawling. Katz (Dani Levy) is a dealer, roaming around and selling old picture postcards of long-decayed nature. Every morning, Herzog (Rainer Egger) stands on the roof of his house with a stopwatch, trying to endure the sunrise. The "Whites" own the monopoly on the past and, with the help of old nature footage, produce electric illusions for an invisible elite. The "Blacks" usurp these illusion machines, and manipulate them. In Sunny's day bar, half the world meets.

  • 1
    Austrian, actually. I took the liberty of adding a manual translation. – DevSolar Jul 1 '14 at 13:36

Your Answer

