This film screened on the 18th of February 2020.

Following the collapse of Dune, Jodorowsky took another direction entirely with children’s fable Tusk (1980), which, despite best efforts, proved unavailable for this season. It was not a success, and the decade would almost have turned before cinemas once again hosted a new film by Alejandro Jodorowsky, one which was a return to the more avant-garde style of his earlier work. Whereas El Topo was often described as an acid western, Santa Sangre could be roughly classified as a psychedelic horror film. Traumatised as a child by the violence in his parents’ relationship, Fenix (played at the various stages in his life by Jodorowsky’s sons Adan and Axel) grows to become a murderer-by-proxy for his disturbed and disfigured mother.

Screening as part of the Alejandro Jodorowsky retrospective, February 5th to 23rd 2020.