El cadáver exquisito

Feb 1 2011 N/A 1h 30m
Drama, Fantasy

In a series of seemingly disjointed vignettes, including an extensive look into the lives of local transgender sex workers, “El Cadaver Exquisito” juxtaposes unscripted everyday rituals with staged dream sequences to provide social commentary on violence in El Salvador, especially against women.

Plot

"Exquisite Corpse" combines documentary, fiction and experimental film-making as it traverses the social and oniric landscape of a region struggling between modernity and tradition. A peasant named Juventino, is killed during a fiery nighttime battle, dedicated to purify the city. As he leaves his world in the midst of this ritual he is infused with visions as his own mind attempts to filter and purify his fears and his desires. Juventino's myths, as torrid and exuberant as the geography, are often more concrete than his reality. The inhabitants aid his journey by performing rituals with the hope of understanding, pleasing and obtaining favors from the beyond. During the day these rituals unleash repressed emotions, which at sundown are liberated into lascivious celebration. His corpse, during the autopsy, unveils something more repugnant than his death, the submission of the living to it. This fantastical collective biography immerses into a dense mythological universe by narrating the life of this being in the process of unbeing, this character becoming this corpse.

Written by

Rossemberg Rivas, Victor Ruano, Sarah Walko

Directed by

Victor Ruano

Production Countries

El Salvador, United States of America

Production Companies

Santasombra Studio

Languages

Español

Awards

N/A

Scores
# of Votes
15
Average Rating
8.1 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA