Sleeping Beauties (Bellas Durmientes)

Running time: N/A

"Doubts are the writer's raw material." At least that is Lawrence's claim as he embarks on a journey to discover his own inspiration amidst his solitary, fearful existence. Lawrence's long time friend, Elias, introduces him to a mysterious house on the outskirts of town where aging men are allowed to spend their nights in the beds of beautiful, yet sedated, women. The more entrenched Lawrence becomes in his quest for what makes an ever-sleeping girl cause him to recall his youth and his past loves, the more he fails to determine what is real and what is a dream. Lawrence is torn between adventure and fascination as his visits with the beautiful women soon become a vicious circle. On the surface, director Eloy Lozano's debut feature is a voyeuristic and erotic foray into the realm of one man's compulsion, often at the cost of his dignity - certainly at the cost of his reality. Underneath, however, Lozano brilliantly offers a mesmerizing tale of nostalgia, loneliness, beauty, aging, death, and sleep in a profound and disquieting manner. Adapted from The House of the Sleeping Beauties by Yasunari Kawabata, Japan's first Nobel laureate for literature, Lozano uses a blend of visual eroticism and unsettling images to reveal that the illusions found in desperate romantic notions hide an underpinning of emotional void. - John Ignowski