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Javier Bardem and Laura Morante in The Dancer Upstairs (2002)

Plot

The Dancer Upstairs

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Summaries

  • A police detective in a South American country is dedicated to hunting down a revolutionary guerilla leader.
  • The story of Detective Agustin Rejas, a man clinging to the hope of an impossible love in an impossible world. Tracking Ezequiel, a delusional anarchist who incites the downtrodden masses to join in his brutal revolution against the fascist government in their unnamed Latin American country, Rejas finds solace in his sense of self-respect and the joy that his daughter and wife bring him. Then he meets Yolanda--his daughter's soulfully beautiful ballet teacher--a woman who sparks his long-forgotten passions and represents all that is good and all that is corrupt in their troubled country. But she, who appears to be a shelter from the storm, may in actuality be the storm's eye. Ultimately, as the revolution intensifies and the net closes around hunter and hunted alike, the dancer's truth will prove as elusive as the revolutionary's cause and the detective's peace.—Sujit R. Varma

Synopsis

  • Detective Augustin Rejas (Javier Bardern) attempts to find the mysterious self-styled President Ezequiel (Abel Folk), a Ezequiel, a delusional Marxist-influenced guerrilla who incites the downtrodden masses to join in his brutal revolution against the corrupt fascist government in their unnamed Latin American country.

    Weighing equally heavy on Rejas's psyche is his attraction to Yolanda (Laura Morante), the teacher of his daughter's ballet class. The affair provides solace to the emptiness of his marriage and his frustration in the search for Ezequiel, but it's not a cure-all.

    Rejas alternately demonstrated a strong affinity for being an excellent police office/detective with being a rather incompetent one. He had his crew sorting through the city's entire day's trash until they found a discarded tube of a prescription skin cream and some cigarette butts, both particular to this Ezequiel fellow, while all the time Ezequiel was living in the upstairs room at this ballet teacher's home.

    It turns out that the ballet teacher is just one of the many brain-washed revolutionaries and she goes ballistic when she learns Rejas is a cop and responsible for arresting her messiah. Rejas then cuts a deal with the government to go easy on Yolanda in prison. She is provided with a well lit cell (as she's terrified of the dark), writing materials, and she will be released after five years of her life sentence. In return, Rejas agrees not to run for President of the country, which was his for the asking after arresting Ezequiel, who had been terrorizing and murdering people left and right.

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Javier Bardem and Laura Morante in The Dancer Upstairs (2002)
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By what name was The Dancer Upstairs (2002) officially released in Canada in English?
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