Rapture

José is a director of horror films. He is unhappy with his own film and stuck in the editing room. He goes home; his former girlfriend is there. That same day a package arrives: an audio tape, a reel of film and a key. The sender is Pedro, a man he met years ago who is constantly shooting on super eight. On the tape Pedro describes something: when he sets up the camera and falls asleep, frames go missing from the film, and it will not let him go. Iván Zulueta writes and directs. Eusebio Poncela and Cecilia Roth are in the cast. The film is a cult work in Spain and one of the director's few features; Zulueta worked as a poster designer and largely withdrew from cinema. The subject is addiction. A direct connection is made between drugs and making films, and both are defined the same way: something that cannot be left and draws a person in. It belongs to the cultural opening after Franco and carries the Madrid of those years. The visual manner is scattered and deliberate: super eight footage, abrupt transitions and passages of dream. It was barely seen on release; it became known later through late night screenings and was restored. Who it is for: viewers who like Spanish cult cinema and experimental horror. Who it is not for: the narrative is unclear, the pacing is irregular, and the drug scenes are disturbing.