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| The Benefactress (2025) |
Following four short films [Bits (2021), My Special Superhero – a visual subtext of madness and rejection (2021), The Baron and the Harpsichord (2021), and The Censor – A British horror tale of real politics and social-moral code (2021)] that drew attention in underground movie cycles, filmmaker Guerrilla Metropolitana delivered a duo of strange films that delved deep into carnage and mayhem; and I couldn’t think of a better writer to tackle them than myself.
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Dariuss (2023) poster
Dariuss (2023)
A couple (Ila
Argento and Archibad Kane) is grieving, following the disappearance of their
young daughter (Medusa S), until they descent into a downward spiral of madness
and murder at the hands of a maniac (Guerrilla Metropolitana).
In case you
haven’t seen something really sick recently,
writer/director/producer/cinematographer Guerrilla Metropolitana and his motley
crew of anonymous conspirators (other actors are credited equally pseudonymously
as Marie Antoinette de Robespierre and Sarah Isabel) delivers a masterwork of
insanity that is a punch on the senses not because of the rape and gore on
display, but rather its sheer bizarre qualities.
Playing with
editing, the use of sound and other techniques that would normally be employed
by a ‘video art’ project, this carnage is a statement on grief and a commentary
on what it is like to be a lost soul. It is also very blatantly asks what is
art, but as the film says the best questions remain unanswered. The bottom line
is that the entire project feels more appropriate in an art gallery, rather
than a movie theatre.
The end result
is not exciting (by any means) but very fascinating (in every possible way and
by all means). I am not very keen on ‘art-house’ cinema, but this is something
totally different, unique, and original, so much that it is difficult to
categorize it and understand why and how it works, but it definitely does.
Metropolitana is constantly breaking audiovisual boundaries and is also
offering the deepest, darkest, and meaningful masturbation scene I’ve seen
since the 1970s films of Jess Franco.
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The Benefactress (2025)
The
Benefactress: An Exposure of Cinematic Freedom (2025)
This time around
writer/director Guerrilla Metropolitana breaks down the walls of Meta cinema by simultaneously including
in his script the supposed financer of it (an anonymous rich woman appearing
via video link) and himself masturbating, licking, fucking, raping, and whatnot
with his acting assemble.
The first
question the film imposes is how far an artist’s freedom can go, and to me the
answer is really simple, as I believe that an artist should be free to do
whatever he feels like and express himself in any way he needs to. However, the
question I imposed to myself during this viewing experience (and pretty early
on too) is if the audience wants to see such freedoms expressed (rape and
murder, to be precise – on shaky video distorted by brilliant editing), but I
couldn’t care less for the rest of the world, and for me it is enough that I
want to see this, and most importantly I demand to be able to see this, as
censorship must be eliminated.
Back to the film
under review, it must be said that this is not really cinema, but it is alien
art. The title doesn’t fully describe it either, as it is not exactly an
exposure of cinematic freedom, but rather an achievement in perversion. The
project is also original in that it doesn’t really have a running time – it
defies time, as watching it has you lost in a netherworld beyond anything you
have seen before.
Finally, it must
be noted that you shouldn’t compare this to the work of David Lynch who was a
rich person with all the money one could get from major studios yet he failed
to deliver a single artistic film; what Guerrilla Metropolitana does here is
high art with zero budget, and as such it should be cherished on every
occasion. Have we finally found this generation’s Jess Franco? I hope so, but
this will only happen if Metropolitana finds the courage to become more prolific.
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