Arquivo / 49th mostra

Argentina, 1983. As the nation’s military dictatorship wages a brutal campaign against its political enemies, two prisoners are forced to share a cramped cell in Buenos Aires. Valentín, a Marxist revolutionary, clings to his ideals despite torture and deprivation. Molina, a gay window dresser serving time for his sexuality, survives the horrors by retreating into the comfort of movies in his imagination. At first, their worlds could not be further apart. But as days stretch into weeks, Molina begins to recount in loving detail his favorite film, “Kiss of the Spider Woman”: a dazzling Technicolor melodrama starring screen siren Ingrid Luna, who plays a woman trying to escape a mythical predator whose kiss brings death. Together, the men conjure the film inside the prison walls. What begins as an act of escape becomes a fragile bridge between two unlikely companions. Based on Manuel Puig’s book and the musical by Terrence McNally.

Presented at the Sundance and Locarno film festivals.