The Dance of Reality

Alejandro Jodorowsky (director of quintessential 1970 cult flick El Topo) returns to his childhood in 1930s Chile for this striking semi-autobiographical drama. Shot in Tocopilla, the actual village of his youth, this surreal blend of truth and fantasy is a story of two halves. Initially, it's all about the young Alejandro and his fractious relationship with his martinet father, Jaime (played by the director's son, Brontis), a seething Stalinist whose frustration with his life (as the owner of a clothes shop) results in brutal treatment of his young son. Meanwhile, the boy's mother swaddles him in affection (and her overtly ample bosom) while singing all her dialogue like an opera diva. But, then the focus falls on Jaime, who leaves home to change the world, only to find enlightenment when he's shattered by a failed assassination attempt, paralysis, a street fight with Nazis and government torture (via electrodes on his unmentionables). A spiritual odyssey - along with appearances from mystics, circus midgets and the limbless - indicates we are on familiar Jodorowsky turf here, with the man himself appearing on screen to offer his musings on life, most poignantly when he emerges to support his troubled younger self after antisemitic abuse. It won't be to all tastes (graphic nudity, full-frontal urination) and is more hallucinatory memory book than straight autobiography, but what a journey it is.