The title Sans Soleil is from the song cycle Sunless by Modest Mussorgsky, a brief fragment of which features in the film.

[1] Expanding the documentary genre, this experimental essay-film is a composition of thoughts, images and scenes, mainly from Japan and Guinea-Bissau, "two extreme poles of survival".

"[4] The original French version of Sans Soleil opens with the following quotation by Jean Racine from the second preface to his tragedy Bajazet (1672): "L'éloignement des pays répare en quelque sorte la trop grande proximité des temps."

A number of sequences in Sans Soleil are borrowed from other filmmakers who are not mentioned until the film's credits, except the footage of the Icelandic volcano which is accredited in narration to Haroun Tazieff.

[7] The filmmakers whose footage was used who were not mentioned in the narration are Sana Na N'Hada, Jean-Michel Humeau, Mario Marret, Eugenio Bentivoglio and Daniele Tessier.

The title "Conception and editing: Chris Marker," at the end of the credits, is the only indication that Sans Soleil is his film.

The modified video images of urban commotion and guerrilla warfare, together with Moog-synth score, look a bit quaint.