Possession 1981 May 2026

In a single, unbroken take, Anna walks through a narrow, tiled tunnel, drops her shopping bags, and begins to convulse. Milk and blood pour from her body. She laughs, screams, and collapses in a spastic, orgasmic fit of despair. It is not acting. It looks like possession.

[Social share card: A still of Isabelle Adjani in the subway tunnel. Text: "The scariest movie about divorce ever made."] possession 1981

But this is no Kramer vs. Kramer .

If you’ve only seen the famous GIF of Isabelle Adjani convulsing in a subway tunnel, you know the image but not the context. Directed by Polish filmmaker Andrzej Żuławski, Possession is a brutal, beautiful, and baffling masterpiece. Here’s why you need to see it—and how to survive the experience. On the surface, the plot is simple: Mark (Sam Neill) returns home to West Berlin after a long business trip to find that his wife, Anna (Isabelle Adjani), wants a divorce. She has been having an affair. In a single, unbroken take, Anna walks through