reviewed by SMiles

This film has gone long unnoticed by those who most need to see it: UFOlogists and anomalists alike (see Ed Conroy's Report on Communion). Argentina's brilliant director, Eliseo Subiela, has created a stirring piece of cinema in the tradition of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and The Man Who Fell To Earth. In Subiela's film, we meet a man named Rantes who claims to be an extraterrestrial. Rantes interns himself in the local sanitarium, where he interacts with the head psychiatrist. Both men try to change the other's perception of reality; the psychiatrist tries to heal Rants of his delusion, and Rants tries to heal the psychiatrist of his unhappiness.

Released in 1986, the film deals with many of the themes found in the UFO/contactee literature. Rantes claims to be on a mission to save the meek, who have been brutalized and institutionalized by human civilization. He says that he is a physical, living, holographic projection sent from his home planet. He exhibits qualities of the Christ, including compassion, leadership, and telekinesis. The patients begin to follow him like a saviour. All the while, every test shows that Rantes is both physically and psychologically healthy, save for claiming to be from another planet.

The plot thickens when a woman friend of Rantes' shows up during visiting hours, and a romance ensues between this woman and the psychiatrist.

You owe it to yourself to seek out and view this foreign masterpiece which searches the psyche of humanity for that capacity which we consider most human: compassionate action.