The Dance of Reality

This movie sees the mad genius return with a vengeance, 23 years after his last movie, just when we stopped expecting more from his hand. But since he intends to live until 120, reaching 84 is no big deal, and he’s not in a hurry. This time he has made a movie about his own childhood experiences growing up as a Jewish immigrant in a dirt-poor mining village in Chile. And it is just as surreal as his classic movies. He cut all connection with his family at age 23, and this movie intends to heal the emptiness that came of that. Expect amputated dwarves, Ukrainian circus artists, Buddhists, communists, and a father and mother in the images of Stalin and Wagner’s Isolde, respectively. Jodorowsky has explained that it’s all therapeutic: «People say I am mad. I am not mad. I am trying to heal my soul.» gil

Suitable for persons 15 years and older.

Today Jodorowsky (b. 1929) is perhaps better known for his cartoons and tarot readings than as a film director, but in the seventies he was the master of psycho-spiritual films. John Lennon was so enthusiastic after seeing El Topo (1970) that he persuaded his manager to help finance the follow-up, The Holy Mountain (1973).

Meet Jodorowsky in conversation:

16th October at 8PM, Filmens Hus
17th October at 8.30 PM, Filmens Hus
18th October at 2 PM, Deichmanske Grünerløkka