Dedicated to both H. G. Wells and Orson Welles, Szulkin’s follow-up to Golem begins with the Christmastime takeover of Poland by a band of hyperintelligent, bloodthirsty martians (played by silver-painted dwarfs in puffer jackets) who enlist hapless television newscaster Iron Idem (Roman Wilhelmi) as the voice of their 1984-esque propaganda machine. But when Iron dares to go off message, he makes an enemy even greater than the aliens: the state itself. Released just as Poland was being plunged into martial law and immediately banned, The War of the Worlds: Next Century is a disturbingly prescient allegory of power, control, and media manipulation in a post-truth world.