Possession uses a Cold War allegory to examine how political and personal divisions create chaos. Set in divided Berlin, Mark and Anna's fractured relationship mirrors East and West Berlin's split, with their doppelgängers representing idealized but impossible versions of one another. In tandem, the film's monster becomes a metaphors for such unresolved trauma and dissociation, embodying the struggle between faith and chance, unity and division. Żuławski’s direction suggests that when these balances fail—whether in marriage or politics—they give rise to instability, spiraling toward madness and even war.
Table of contents
Mark and Anna live in West Berlin
Andrzej Żuławski’s background
So what does the end of Possession really mean?
Explaining the tunnel scene
What does the title mean?
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