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Arrebato
An obsessive filmmaker descends into madness, in this Spanish cult masterpiece from one of Pedro Almodóvar's early associates, Iván Zulueta.
Director: Iván Zulueta
Overview
Struggling horror film director, José Sirgado (Eusebio Poncela), returns to his Madrid apartment one day to find his ex-girlfriend Ana (Cecilia Roth), passed out in his bed, and a parcel from an old acquaintance, Pedro (Will More). The package contains a door key, a cassette tape, and a Super-8 film reel. As José watches the film and listens to Pedro’s narration, he is seduced into a world of strange experiments with drugs, sex and home videos, trying to recreate the “rapture” that Pedro experienced being filmed whilst he sleeps, and becomes consumed by cinema itself.
Iván Zulueta’s 70s Spanish cult horror, made just four years after Franco’s death, embraces new freedoms around sex, drugs and queerness, to explore the obsessive allure of filmmaking through a surreal and haunting lens. Zulueta emerged from same Madrid filmmaking scene as Pedro Almodóvar, who was an early collaborator and provided some uncredited voice work on the film. Arrebato would be Zulueta's only completed feature.
drug misuse, sexualised nudityRelated
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