What does this 1972 Russian film intend to convey about guilt, regret and moral injury? How does the film create ambiguity with regard to the motivation of the alien world, Solaris, in creating replicas of people about whom the main characters have strong regrets? How does the replica of Dr. Kelvin’s deceased wife Hari force the men on the space station to engage the question of whether or not she is a full person, or merely something like a robot? How does the contrast between Dr. Sartorius’s treatment of the replica Hari and that of Dr. Snaut and Kelvin illustrate? Is that replica Hari reflective only of Kelvin’s conceptions of his dead wife, and his guilt over her suicide, or is she actually Hari? Why does the replica Hari ask Snaut and Sartorius to destroy her? How does this choice reflect the suicide of Kelvin’s actual wife, and does it free him of guilt at having caused it? At the end of the film, does Kelvin make the morally correct choice in choosing to stay behind with Solaris’s replica of his father, who has probably passed on since Kelvin left Earth? Why does he choose to do this? Are there some psycho-therapeutic aspects to that choice that Kelvin subconsciously wants to engage, or is he choosing to avoid obligations?

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