Okay, if you are expecting any action scenes involving spacecraft of any kind, or surreal views of the red planet, please depart the waiting room. But if you are intrigued by a sci fi story that is really more of a strange exploration of Spanish culture, this might be your gig.
An actress shows up at some anonymous waiting room, allegedly for a screen test. But the security guard doesn't seem to know much. He manages to reach someone. Another woman shows up dressed in a strange uniform - white beret, white shirt, short pencil skirt, black platform stiletto mary janes. I'm not sure what military might use this uniform, but the other woman should have headed for the exits at that point. But no, she goes with the uniformed woman and ends up in some dark office space where she's urged to sign a contract because she's late. She gives in, and is welcomed to Mission Pakal to Mars.
And it gets worse. Now wearing the strange uniform, she ends up in a black room (antithesis of the white room from THX 1138) with several similarly dressed women. There's some harsh banter about proper military protocol. Then the reveal: they are to travel to Mars in a device of oblique description, for a round trip that will take 24 hours.
The rest of the film is the back and forth between the actress who is there for the test, and the rest of the women who seem to really believe that they are on the way to Mars. At one point the actress is cuffed and laid out on the floor. Then an alleged collision with dark matter. The banter and conversation is very oblique and odd. I'm reminded of the Spanish Civil War and the "agreement of silence" where nobody talks about the war or the atrocities committed. Is this a densely coded way to discuss that tragedy, of how Spain was a complicit ally of the Third Reich? Is the severely sexual nature of the uniform (and all the clomping around in patent stiletto heels) a way to get Spanish men to endure the dialogue? Is it all about true believers, and those who like the actress at the end, use the exit door and slip away? You will have to decide for yourself.
An actress shows up at some anonymous waiting room, allegedly for a screen test. But the security guard doesn't seem to know much. He manages to reach someone. Another woman shows up dressed in a strange uniform - white beret, white shirt, short pencil skirt, black platform stiletto mary janes. I'm not sure what military might use this uniform, but the other woman should have headed for the exits at that point. But no, she goes with the uniformed woman and ends up in some dark office space where she's urged to sign a contract because she's late. She gives in, and is welcomed to Mission Pakal to Mars.
And it gets worse. Now wearing the strange uniform, she ends up in a black room (antithesis of the white room from THX 1138) with several similarly dressed women. There's some harsh banter about proper military protocol. Then the reveal: they are to travel to Mars in a device of oblique description, for a round trip that will take 24 hours.
The rest of the film is the back and forth between the actress who is there for the test, and the rest of the women who seem to really believe that they are on the way to Mars. At one point the actress is cuffed and laid out on the floor. Then an alleged collision with dark matter. The banter and conversation is very oblique and odd. I'm reminded of the Spanish Civil War and the "agreement of silence" where nobody talks about the war or the atrocities committed. Is this a densely coded way to discuss that tragedy, of how Spain was a complicit ally of the Third Reich? Is the severely sexual nature of the uniform (and all the clomping around in patent stiletto heels) a way to get Spanish men to endure the dialogue? Is it all about true believers, and those who like the actress at the end, use the exit door and slip away? You will have to decide for yourself.
