In a Glass Cage ( Tras el cristal )

In a Glass Cage (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: Tras el cristal
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Fantasporto Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
Spanish ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
107 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Interactive Menu
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 1987 and produced in:
Spain ( Spain, Portugal )

Directed By:
Agustí Villaronga

Written By:
Agustí Villaronga

Actors:
Günter Meisner ..... Klaus
David Sust ..... Angelo
Marisa Paredes ..... Griselda
Gisèle Echevarría ..... Rena (as Gisèla Echevarría)
Imma Colomer ..... Jornalera
Josue Guasch ..... Niño Cantior
David Cuspinera ..... Niño barracon
Ricardo Carcelero ..... Angelo Niño
Alberto Manzano ..... Niño gitano

Synopsis:

Stylistically compelling, morally ambiguous, and profoundly unsettling, this Spanish psychodrama from writer-director Agustin Villaronga stands beside Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salo as one of cinema's most unflinching depictions of human depravity. The story opens in post-WWII Catalonia as former Nazi death camp 'doctor' Klaus (Gunter Meisner) consummates his torture-murder of a young man by hurling himself from the roof of his house; this act, motivated either by a sudden attack of conscience or by some form of sexual mania, leaves him paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe on his own. We soon find Klaus lying prone in an archaic iron lung, attended by his stern wife Griselda (Marisa Paredes) and young daughter Rena (Gisela Echevarria). When they become unable (or, in his wife's case, unwilling) to look after him, Griselda hires handsome young nurse Angelo (David Sust), unaware that the young man is one of Klaus' former victims, who has maintained a detailed dossier on the 'doctor' and his countless unspeakable atrocities. Thus begins a perverse and surreal manipulation of master/servant roles between the immobile Klaus and his equally demented attendant, as the young man attempts to recreate the nightmare world of the camps, even procuring more young victims for his former tormentor's amusement. Though it could be asserted that the stylistically accomplished Villaronga has made a passionate artistic statement about mankind's capacity for unspeakable atrocities, his film may be construed as being one of those horrors in itself. At any rate, Tras el Cristal is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.

A former Nazi doctor-turned-pedophile, paralyzed from the neck down after a suicide attempt, is forced to accept a boy as his nurse under threat of blackmail: the boy secretly witnessed the doctor's torture and murder of another boy, and possesses the man's diary, which details his wartime experiments and his subsequent descent into pedophilia and murder. Before long, the boy displays his ambition to follow in the older man's footsteps.

A Nazi doctor who had a fetish for young boys feels guilt after torturing and murdering his latest victim, and throws himself off a roof. Some years later, the doctor, confined to an iron lung, accepts as his nurse a boy who secretly witnessed that killing.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 03 March, 2010.

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