Endless Poetry

Continuing where The Dance of Reality (2013) signed off, the second part of Chilean auteur Alexandro Jodorowsky's autobiographical quintet follows the family from the backwater town of Tocopilla to 1940s Santiago, where the young Jodorowsky learns about life, love and art. Whether falling out with his bigoted shopkeeper father, Jaime (Brontis Jodorowsky), flirting with kinky muse Stella Diaz (Pamela Flores, who doubles brilliantly as Jodorowsky's singing mother) or shocking the establishment with fellow poet Enrique Lihn (Leandro Taub), Jodorowsky (played from teenager to adult by Jeremias Herskovits and Adan Jodorowsky) drifts between harsh reality and bohemian fantasy with the assurance of a sleepwalker. Cinematographer Christopher Doyle captures intimate incidents and surreal set pieces with lustrous panache, while Jodorowsky acts as both his own production designer (the home-made backdrops and props are inspired) and the on-screen chorus, who watches his younger self dabble in puppetry, poetry, politics, sex and the circus before setting sail for Paris to continue his remarkable journey.