FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

Four women are forced to live together in an old dilapidated house. This new post-apocalyptic future government virtually enslaves them as prostitutes where they must carry out their clients’ wildest sadomasochistic desires. The sterilization imposed upon them by the state as well as the inability to leave the premises makes them all stir crazy. Some are worse than others, imagining invisible visitors or going into labor every other week. At some point, one of the girls beats and imprisons one of the clients, leading to interrogations. If anything is certain in this new world, it’s that their future is not.

What an odd little movie this is. Don’t be misled by the plot, there really isn’t much of one. I found it to be a pretty random scattering of scenes. I mean, I’ve read the synopsis, I’ve even written one (see above), and of course I’ve seen the damn thing and I still don’t really know what it’s about or what happened. All the social commentary and deeper meanings to the film that supposedly come through seem to either be in the director’s head or lost in the pages of un-filmed back story created to get us to this point. The fact that this director has a following and a fan base for these types of movies makes me think either they’re lying to themselves if they think they know what the films are about, or they don’t know and like it anyway somehow, or I’m really just that dumb. It could be any combination of the three.

All I know is that this thing is weird. Like punishing bad behavior by smashing raw eggs on their boobs, even though they sort of like it, weird. Like going into labor and then delivering a “baby” weird. Trust me; it would have been better if we hadn’t known the pay off of the delivery before it started. There’s a lot that could have probably made the movie better. Maybe the movie would have been better if there were no subtitles and we didn’t know what they were saying. Maybe the movie would be better if they would have spent more time with the customers. Maybe having a dead body that actually led somewhere would have made the movie better. Maybe not using the 70s sexploitation/80s soft porn music would have made the movie better. Maybe taking out the indiscernible montage of overlapping images of men yelling behind a chain link fence and sexually charged zombie like things, followed inevitably and unfortunately by a sequence of these little girls climbing out of the ground, even though that’s the closest thing to a hint we get about what’s going on.

Knowing some of that elaborate back story would have helped so much. There’s just so much mystery throughout the picture. Most of it goes unsolved, and none of it is really very intriguing. This isn’t helped much by the nasty video look, which probably would make more sense if the plot was discernable. Either way I’d be against the video effects like motion blur and making the shot look like a film negative. So, the only thing making this movie remotely worthwhile is watching all of the girls’ quirks unfold. And I’m sure some of you would like the egg thing. I suppose it’s possible that seeing the other two parts in this trilogy by director Nikos Nikolaidis, “Eurydice BA 2037” (1975) and “Morning Patrol” (1987), would help fill in the gaps slightly, but I sincerely doubt it. From what I gather this is meant to be a stand alone and the trilogy is merely connected by theme, which makes this third part an elaborate, inspired mess of movie.

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