La Danza de la Realidad (2013)

Alejandro Jadorowsky's first film in 23 years is a dreamy autobiographical journey that looks and feels like an unusually long and vivid dream. It makes perfect sense while it lasts, but later on one struggles to fully deconstruct its uneven parts and comprehend the many symbolic messages behind them.

The film tells the story of Jaime Jodorowsky (played by the director's son, Brontis), who lives in the quiet coastal town of Tocopilla. Jaimie is a passionate communist who worships Stalin and a husband and father who does his best to keep the family shop, Casa Ukrania, afloat. But it hasn't been easy. His son, Alejandrito (Jeremias Herskovits), has been a major distraction – mostly because he hasn't been the docile puppy Jamie wanted him to be – and business has slowed down because the area has been flooded with various misfits and fascist sympathizers that have driven many of his regular customers away. Much to Jamie's annoyance, his religious wife, Sara (Pamela Flores), has also stopped talking and started singing because she has come to the conclusion that her life is part of a giant never-ending opera and she has been chosen to be its biggest star.

Frustrated with life and his countrymen's tolerance for the fascist dictator Carlos Ibanez (Bastian Bodenhofer), Jamie decides to take matters into his own hands and ensure that his son will grow older in a state where fear and oppression are viewed as things of the past. He then goes on the road with a loaded gun ready to confront Ibanez and his fascist cronies.

The tone and attitude of The Dance of Reality are as unapologetic as those of Santa Sangre, though there is a greater sense of balance in it that ultimately provides one with more time to digest the visuals. At the end, however, the two films offer a fairly similar experience – they transport one to an alternate reality where conventional logic has been obliterated.

Whether one's visit to Jodorowsky's world is a pleasant one depends almost entirely on one's willingness to temporarily follow and observe without questioning. There is a nostalgic feeling that links the floating ideas and the odd visuals in it, but attempting to comprehend the exact order in which they appear or the symbolism behind them is largely unnecessary. Indeed, the film is a like a live family album that has been assembled by Jodorowsky and then presented in a way that makes perfect sense only to him. It is easy to tell that there are missing pieces and even easier to see that there are many fabricated pieces, but this unusual album of kitschy, explicit and at times flat-out bizarre 'memories' offers an absolutely fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of the most original directors of our time.

Jodorowsky and cinematographer Jean-Marie Dreujou (The Girl On The Bridge, Felix and Lola) shot the film with multiple digital cameras on location in Chile. Large parts from the film look incredibly vibrant and colorful, like intense, pulsating fragments from a vivid dream would. But some of the visuals also feel oddly sterile, even intentionally over-stylized.

You may also like Alejandro Jadorowsky's El Topo (1970)

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