It's concerning to find how little of Subiela's work, which is usually coupled with the idea of Magic Realism, has reached us.
REHEN DE ILUSIONES begins subdued for this director with the only early fantasy sequence the eerie characters petitioning academic Fanego to have their stories written and him taking what prove to be their blank sheets of paper. However the plot proper, with his former student Ricci achieving her old ambition to become his lover and revealing a disturbed personality the extent of which he is trying to gage, is subtler and more menacing than the earlier films, with the shadow of the county's military past intruding.
Subdued color and expert, unostentatious handling, with a vivid characters played by non star types.
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