Long Live Death

Long Live Death

1971 · 90 min · FR · 6.0 (30 votes)
Dir. Fernando Arrabal · Starring Mohamed Bellasoued, Anouk Ferjac, Núria Espert, Mahdi Chaouch, Ivan Henriques, Jazia Klibi
DramaWar

At the end of the Spanish civil war, Fando, a boy of about ten, tries to make sense of war and his father's arrest. His mother is religious, sympathetic to the Fascists; his father is accused of being a Red. Fando discovers that his mother may have aided in his father's arrest. Sometimes we witness Fando imagining explanations for what's going on; sometimes we see him at play, alone or with his friend Thérèse. Oedipal fantasies and a lad's natural curiosity about sex and death mix with his search for his mother's nature and his father's fate. Will Fando survive the search?

VIBE

A disorienting descent into a child's fractured psyche amidst the ruins of war. Surreal imagery and unsettling themes create a nightmarish, dreamlike experience that lingers long after the credits roll.

surrealnightmarishnihilisticdisorientingunsettlingslow-burnsurrealist cinemaarthousesymbolicdreamlikewarchildhood traumaloss of innocenceblasphemyfamily dysfunction
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dreamnihilismfascismsatiresurrealismspanish civil war (1936-39)sahara desertdesertblasphemycorporal punishmentwhippingmother son relationship
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