Original subtitles

Tocopilla...

This tremor,

this bewilderment,

this wandering towards the depths

of the faraway and never.

I Iost my mountains and their sharp scent.

I lost my ocean

and its clouds of seagulls.

From Tocopilla to Santiago, two thousand kilometres of tears,

feeling my dreams shatter into pieces.

I landed on Matucana Street, now in decline,

but not so long ago

the main road of a working-class neighbourhood.

War! War!

El Combate wages war

on high prices!

You're late.

Sorry, Father.

A drunkard got stabbed. His guts were hanging out.

Were you stabbed in the legs?

What day is it?

Saturday! Our busiest day of the week.

You should've been on time!

Listen,

these lousy folk look harmless, but they're thieves.

Point if you see them stealing.

Thieves!

Thieves!

Kick him! He's guilty, he won't fight back!

- I can't! - We show no mercy here!

Kick him!

Again! Again!

Kick him harder!

Look!

A thief!

Scram!

That's what happens to thieves.

Well done!

Move along now.

Come on.

Jaime, I thought you had changed

but you're still the same man.

You're a bully.

So what?

I work like a dog to support this family.

I can't let people rob me!

Now then, let's calm down.

My mother is coming for mate

and strawberry cake today.

My holy mother!

Again? I'm sick of this life!

Bravo!

El Combate wages war

not only on thieves

but on high prices too!

It stinks of soot and excrement in here.

How can you live like this?

The nose gets used to it, Mum.

Some day, with God's help,

well open an elegant shop in town.

Have a seat and let's drink mate.

It's your brother's anniversary.

I never forget, Mother.

Oh, José!

How could you choke to death

on a piece of strawberry cake?

Calm down.

Calm down.

You have suffered too many years.

Enough, Mum.

I will give you

the son you lost.

"Green, how I want you green. Green wind. Green branches.

'The ship on the sea and the horse on the mountain.

"With the shade around her waist, she dreams on her balcony,

"green flesh, her hair green, with eyes of cold silver.

"Green, how I want you green.

"Under the gypsy moon,

"all things are watching her and she cannot see them.

"Green, how I want you green.

"Green, how I want you green."

Garcia Lorca!

He speaks of love, but he's a faggot!

Like all poets, all painters, all dancers,

all actors...

If you read this filth,

you'll end up like him!

This shit...

Read your biology books instead.

I want my son to be a great doctor.

Yes, Father.

I'll read only biology books and I'll be a great doctor.

Men don't cry!

Alejandrito, I've brought you this precious gift.

Your gran gave me her son José's violin

- may he rest in peace -

because it would make her happy

if you learnt to play this holy instrument.

Open it.

You will take lessons

at the music academy.

But...

it looks like a coffin.

What?

- He's got a corpse! - Corpse!

- What a stink! - Stink!

Gravedigger! Gravedigger!

Get lost, damn it!

Don't worry, young man.

A naked virgin will illuminate your path

with a blazing butterfly.

That drunk,

whom wine had made a prophet,

pulled me out of the abyss

with a single sentence.

"A naked virgin will illuminate your path..."

"...with a blazing butterfly."

- They'll kill each other! - What do you care?

Just guard the money.

-All right. - Let's go.

"The blossom sings and disappears.

"Hovw can we complain?''

Faggot!

I won't see the world through your eyes!

"Night rain.

"empty house.''

Faggot!

"My footprints on the path slowly dissolve.

"The blossom sings and disappears."

Faggot!

"How can we complain?

"Night rain, empty house.

"My footprints on the path slowly dissolve."

Poetry,

you shall illuminate my path like a blazing butterfly.

Good evening, Father.

Good evening, Mum.

Good evening, Alejandrito.

I see you've done your homework.

We're spending tomorrow with my mother.

I promised her I'd take a cake.

I'm going to the kitchen to bake it.

Fix your own dinner!

Let's disinfect this filth.

Put that down and help me.

Father.

I have...

something important to tell you.

Something important? You?

Father.

Save me, Dad.

Father.

We're going to die!

I promised her I'd take a cake.

Calm down!

You coward!

My God!

Father.

Don't let fear rule you!

It's just a tremor.

Come on!

Put that down!

Come on!

As fearful as their dogs!

Fear

makes things worse.

Your mind is more powerful than any earthquake.

Come on, be brave, laugh with me!

See?

It was nothing.

Let's count the money.

What were you saying just before?

Nothing important.

Praise the Lord.

He saved my saintly mother's cake.

Hello, Sara.

Jaime.

Hello, sonny. Remember me?

Yes. You're Uncle Isidoro.

How you've grown! You were this small.

You were this tall.

You used to try to shove

your insect spray up my ass!

Alejandrito, show some respect!

Ifs fine. Don't worry.

Friends?

Your body's grown but not your brain.

You're still as stupid.

Come on in. They're waiting for you.

Hello, everyone, venerable mother.

What is this, Sara?

Didn't I teach you not to be late?

Here's the cake I promised.

Absolutely not, sister!

You know Mum is devoloping diabetes.

Let me try it.

Unbelievable! There's more sugar than chocolate.

Fanny, bin it!

My little girl, calm down.

You don't play cards.

Look, on the sofa,

there's the scarf you started for me.

Sit down and finish it.

What will you study?

- I... - Medicine!

My son will study medicine.

Excellent!

I won't study medicine.

I'm going to be a poet!

You'll starve.

No one's going to starve, Naum.

Alejandrito is like Isidoro, he loves to joke.

You were joking, right?

Yes. Father.

I was joking.

Right,

go and amuse yourself in the garden.

Feed the pigeons.

Fucking bitch!

Will this be enough?

For starters.

Shit!

Three, please.

Done.

Check.

I'll see you.

Four kings.

Four aces!

What?

Looks like you've lost again!

The loser pays up!

Fucking family!

Fuck you!

What's all that shouting?

Vandal! He's chopping down the tree!

Our tree!

Fucking family!

Alejandrito!

Go, you savage, and don't ever come back!

You shits!

Why my house?

Why my tree?

Alejandrito! Alejandrito!

Wait!

Alejandro, that was amazing!

Your rebellious act is worthy of a poet.

Without saying a word, you said it all.

Do you have the nerve to go home tonight?

No! My mum would hit the roof.

Don't worry, I'll take you to the Cereceda sisters.

Shall we go?

Let's go!

This is where my friends live, Carmen and Verónica Cereceda.

Come on.

I've never seen their parents.

I don't know if they're orphans or millionaires.

All I know is that they love art above all things.

Carmen!

I've brought a new friend.

Hello, Ricardo.

- It's no bother? - No, dear.

If you're an artist you can come here anytime.

Verónica!

Ricardo!

Who's this, Ricardo?

Alejandro.

A wonderful soul, a future great artist.

Lets see.

A fine bone structure.

You'd make a good model.

What's your art, Alejandro?

I write poems.

Do you know any by heart?

No.

You're a poet, improvise!

You felled the tree, you can do it!

'The Being within me is consumed,

"casting flames from the dream."

Come, Alejandro.

Look!

Do you like it?

Yes. It's a beautiful place.

I love it!

Look at these books.

All great poets. They went through the same as you.

Say it.

Like a mythological hero, he felled his family tree.

He's a marvellous boy.

Boy or girl?

A unique being! So beautiful.

But that beautiful being is a man, Ricardo. A man!

Am I wrong or is what I think true?

It's true!

Isn't it?

It is.

But that boy is still innocent.

Don't make him think your love is just friendship.

I want to live without a mask.

But I'm Naum's son,

I have to be an architect, get married, have two children.

Dare, Ricardo!

He'd die. The scandal would kill him.

Take off your mask.

Be bold.

Be bold!

Be bold, Ricardo!

Be bold!

Be bold, Ricardo!

I Will.

I will.

Thank you.

Punto!

Hello, you.

Come in, Ricardo. You're not disturbing.

Are you happy here?

Thanks to you, I've never been happier.

I've been able to write in peace. Listen...

"I do not fear my shadow.

"My aim is to return to what I have always been."

How beautiful!

"To return to what I have always been."

Tell me, have you ever had sex with anyone?

No, never.

Do you masturbate?

Yes.

And when you do, do you think of men or women?

Women, of course.

I think of men,

but of beautiful men like you.

May I confess something?

I like you.

No. I love you.

I'm sorry, Ricardo.

I...

I'm not like that.

That's what I was afraid of.

But...

we can be friends.

Impossible.

I would have to hide my erections.

There's nothing to be done, then.

Farewell, Alejandro. We shall never meet again.

I'm sorry.

May I take a kiss as a souvenir?

I owe you that much.

Do it.

Did you feel anything?

Nothing.

I felt nothing.

I'm not a faggot. I told you so, Dad!

I felt free.

I grew.

Get up, poet!

Get up!

I've been up for ages.

Come and meet your brothers.

What brothers?

Follow me!

Cana and Gordo, symbiotic dancers.

Alberto Rubio, supratenor.

Gustavo Becerra, ultrapianist.

Your brother Hugo Marín, polypainter.

The miracle we call chance

has sent us this poet.

Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Let's welcome him!

We won't let you go until you tell us a poem.

'To be neither this nor that,

"to shed one and a thousand skins,

"to consume the superfluous in a myriad of flames,

"to be swept away by the wind in a swarm of petals."

Poet!

I have sold my devil to the soul!

So, Alejandro,

which puppet are you making?

You've made me read Pablo Neruda's Odes

and Nicanor Parra's Antipoems.

I prefer Parra.

He isn't a supreme god like Neruda.

He's a human being with divine weaknesses.

I am honoured to introduce

a great poet: Nicanor Parra!

"For many years I was doomed

"to worship a contemptible woman,

"to work night and day

"to feed her and clothe her,

"to commit numerous crimes

"by moonlight,

"to practise petty burglary,

"for fear of a scornful glance

"from her bewitching eyes."

Get off!

It was very entertaining.

Take this money.

What for? I have everything here.

But here you won't find a muse

like Nicanor Parra's Viper.

Go to Café Iris.

Poets and muses meet there every night.

Maybe you'll meet yours.

A beer, please.

Thank you.

You people are nothing!

My two litres!

Do you know that woman?

That's Stella Díaz, a poetess.

Careful, young man.

You people are nothing!

Stop the bus!

Thank you.

Yes. I'm following you.

Hit me.

Open your eyes.

They say you write poems.

I do too.

May I read yours?

You're only interested in my poems?

Not my ass or breasts?

No, I... I'm not interested...

Show me your sex.

- My sex? - Yes.

- Here in the street? - Now.

You're a virgin.

You're as pure as a romantic Pierrot.

Come.

Here's your portrait.

I love you.

I need you.

I am yours.

You will illuminate my path with a blazing butterfly.

Thank you.

''The woman who loved doves in virginal ecstasy

"and fed lilies at night with her somnolent breast,

"dreamt with her back against the wall,

''and everything seemed beautiful without being so.''

Genius!

Yes, everything seems beautiful.

This place is magical!

Magical!

Wake up! Wake up, sir!

This place is magical, wake up!

Wake up!

Wake up, sir!

Wake up, this place is magical!

Madam!

Let's dance!

Let's go.

Let's go.

Goodbye!

This is where I live.

Now I'm going to bite you.

You want to see if I'll sacrifice a piece of my ear to get you?

I sacrifice myself.

You shit!

Fuck off, you shit!

Don't you like my devil?

You're talented, young man.

We're going to get on well.

Now go to bed.

Go!

I'll meet you tomorrow,

at midnight in Café Iris.

Go!

At midnight in Café Iris.

Goodbye.

A beer, please.

Same again.

Another.

Let Nicanor Parra be your master!

You shouldn't demean yourself

with vulgar nobodies like this one.

If you read his great poem The Viper, you'll find your portrait.

Farewell forever!

You want to beat me up?

I'll do it for you!

I'm much more than this.

I'm Nicanor Parra.

And the one who inspired my poem

The Viper...

Stella.

You can have her.

I bet you have a knife.

Give it to me.

It's to sharpen the quill

I write my poems with.

Shut up.

Poets don't explain themselves.

What's your name?

Alejandro.

We shall never part again.

We will sleep during the day and live at night.

I'll write by scratching the skin of your back.

Through the pain you'll understand my poems.

I am still a virgin.

We shall try everything except penetration.

I am saving my hymen for a man with a divine face

who will descend from the mountains.

You will feed me.

I will let you drink my saliva.

From now on,

every time we walk together,

I will keep hold of your private parts.

Sit down.

Take off your shoes.

This is a retirement home. They sleep till late.

Whenever a noise wakes them up, they groan.

Orpheus, in the kingdom of death,

must not see his beloved naked.

Your coat...

Your skirt...

Your blouse...

Your camisole...

My love roams the streets

I don't know when he'll return

Will he be home for Easter?

Or for Trinity?

Sara.

Come here.

Trinity has passed

My love has not returned.

His mother, who waits for him

Begins to weep...

Everybody humiliates me.

I so wanted my son to be a doctor.

Calm down, Jaime.

My heart tells me Alejandrito will come home.

This is all we have left to eat.

Now you will have to feed me. Can you?

I can.

As Nicanor Parra says,

"I will practise petty burglary by moonlight."

Alejandrito?

Is that you?

Yes, Dad.

Wonderful! We were waiting for you.

Alejandrito,

go to bed. Sleep well.

Yes, Mum.

"Perform several crimes, commit several misdemeanours,

"for fear of a scornful glance from your bewitching eyes."

You've brought me Nirvana!

This is three months' worth of empanadas and beer.

An eternity!

Wait.

Tell me,

what is poetry to you?

It's the luminous excrement of a toad that's swallowed a firefly.

My dear little toad,

I'm too big a firefly for your mouth.

I don't need to swallow you.

You are my soul.

A very thirsty soul.

Midnight!

Café Iris should be open now. Let's go!

We're not serving today.

One of our own has died.

Shit!

My kingdom for a beer!

There's a bar, The Mute Parrot, which is open till dawn.

Let's go!

Stella, are you mad?

That dive attracts the worst kind of people.

Knife fights every night!

If Orpheus could seduce the beasts,

we can make that mute parrot sing mass!

Let's hurry!

Wait.

Don't show your breasts. Button up your coat.

Don't be afraid.

I can defend myself.

A litre and a half, sir.

Miss!

Cheers!

How much for a blowjob?

But I'm not a prostitute.

Pity!

Your skin is so white.

I'm an artist, a poet.

A poet!

Like that fatty Neruda!

Why don't you recite something?

All right. I'll improvise a few verses.

But please leave me alone after.

"Where there are ears but no song

"in this evanescent world,

"where the Being surrenders to the undeserving,

''I am more my footprints than my steps.''

No!

I'm a poet!

No!

No!

Stella!

Stop there, you apes!

Bow before the vengeful vagina!

Watch it, you!

Monster!

Run!

You hit me.

Enough.

Let's go.

Never again, Stella.

Ricardo!

What? Did you know him?

He was my cousin.

What a thought, to commit suicide in front of the University of Chile!

He didn't want to become an architect.

"Like a bird,

"like the entrails of a tree,

"you reached the end of the quest, defeated and doomed,

"for having silenced the soul you concealed."

Alejandro!

There's nothing you can do for him.

But I need to do something for myself.

Stella, I don't know who I am any more.

I've turned into a mirror that only reflects your image.

I no longer want to live in the chaos you create!

I beg you...

let me recover.

Give me a few days of solitude.

We'll meet at Café Iris

at midnight sharp

in forty days' time.

Eat, Alejandro.

You've been shut away for forty days,

making puppets without setting foot outside.

Why?

I feel empty.

I sculpt faces because I've lost mine.

I haven't found myself.

Perhaps tonight

I'll become the mirror of that awful woman again.

What have you done to your hair?

The god I was awaiting

has come down from the mountains.

I'm not a virgin any more.

I'm carrying the perfect child fate had promised me.

I am a messenger dove.

Let me go.

Don't worry.

A harmless fit of sadness.

The first glance I cast upon you

Remains imprinted on my eyes

Where will my song return to now?

This one looks just like me!

Let me see.

It does!

I want to buy it.

No, you can have it.

No, I'll buy it.

And this one looks like a friend!

Miracles happen.

I must introduce you. He's a great artist.

What's going on, André?

Leaving without a word?

I'm going to France, Luz.

I need some distance between us.

I can't chain you to an old man.

You're ageless.

That isn't why you're leaving me.

Did you hear I met someone ?

It's true. I'm getting married.

I want to have children.

Is he your fiancé?

No, Alejandro is a friend.

He makes puppets. He brought a few to show you.

Not now. I have to go to the airport.

Why the rush, André? Look at this.

Who is it?

It's you.

André, you're leaving!

You taught me so much.

You lit up my life.

I loved you.

I never dared tell you I wanted to kiss you.

I'd have liked that.

May I kiss you now?

You're leaving but I'll always be with you.

I'm leaving but I'll always be with you.

Keep them.

André for you.

Luz for you.

You'll be together.

You are a divine messenger, young man.

Thanks to you, Luz and I will never be apart.

This studio

is mine.

You can have it.

Really?

It's a miracle.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you! Thank you!

I'll be able to create here,

I'll be able to write,

I'll be able to do what I like!

This is my place!

I'm even going to throw parties!

I'll invite boxers, I'll invite politicians, whores,

all my friends!

I'll throw a big party here!

This place will be paradise!

Paradise!

If daily life seems like hell,

if it can be summed up in two words,

"permanent impermanence",

we must listen to the Bible:

"There is nothing better for man

"than to eat,

drink,

"and have his soul rejoice!"

May he who has legs, dance!

May he who has hands, caress!

And may he who has a tongue,

confess his sins on the Chair of Truth.

I've waited for her my entire life

and I've finally met her.

I would like to caress her forever

but...

I lost them when I was a child.

I got so used to these fake hands

I forgot I was missing my own...

until the day she offered me her body.

And I,

a half-caresser,

would like to have two, four, eight...

a thousand hands...

to caress her with all my life.

Who can help me, with their hands,

make my dream come true?

Come up here, please.

"If life is nothing out madness...''

Who's the poet hiding behind a mirror?

He's Enrique Lihn.

"...Such is my poetry: sighted darkness.

"I am but my own absence

"behind a broken mirror.''

Who's there?

The party thrower!

Just a minute.

What do you want?

I want to be your friend.

Are you homosexual?

No.

Then why do you want to be my friend?

Because I admire your poetry.

So I don't count? You're interested in my poems.

That's right!

All right, then.

Go in!

The US is counting on its powerful B29 bombers.

The USSR will retaliate with their aggressive MiGs...

What do you think, Tito?

It may be cold, but the war is still on.

Turn it up.

The US is counting on its powerful B29 bombers.

The USSR will retaliate with their aggressive MiGs...

My parents.

That stupid war sucked their brains out.

They've been dead for years.

Come on.

Welcome to my temple.

May I?

Please do.

I love it!

Did you write all this?

All of it.

"Invisible, they dismiss you, flawless diamond."

"The death I flee runs slowly beside me."

There are even poems on the floor!

This wonderful work will be lost.

Everything will vanish.

Our souls will disappear.

It doesn't matter. Dreams vanish too,

and little by little we dissolve.

Poetry, like the shadow of a flying eagle,

leaves no trace on land.

A poem reaches perfection when it burns.

I couldn't bear to see this work of art burn.

May I suggest something?

Let's go for a walk.

Let's go!

Forward march!

Alejandro, do you agree

that the language we were taught transports crazy ideas?

That's right, Enrique.

Instead of thinking straight, we think crooked.

I might add that we also walk crooked.

I'd say we're walking in a straight line.

True, but faced with this truck that tells us to turn...

what do we do?

We poets don't have to do anything.

Let's walk straight ahead.

Imbeciles!

My truck!

Stupid assholes!

Get the fuck outta here!

What can I do for you?

Venerable madam, we are poets in action.

We're walking through town in a straight line.

May we go through your house?

What for?

To develop our consciousness, madam.

All right, then...

Come in.

Dear madam,

in order to keep going straight,

may we walk over this obstacle?

This is where we sleep...

Wait a second.

Help me.

There you go.

- Go on. - Thank you, beautiful madam.

You'll go down in history.

Farewell, unforgettable madam.

What does it say?

"Forbidden to pedestrians."

Forbidden to forbid!

Well Said!

Alejandro,

poetry is an act.

A thousand times, yes!

Poetry is an act!

It is my pride and honour to welcome to his stage,

on which great figures have stood,

such as Pablo Neruda, Vicente Huidobro and others,

who now rest in the Olympus of Fame...

I give you...

Alejandro Jodorowsky and Enrique Lihn.

"Miserable Prometheus.

"Hearts of sugar.

"Fragrant asses.

"Flaccid quills.

"Fall from your ball-less and anaemic souls...

"...into the intense flesh.

''The mother flesh.

"The fucking flesh!"

Outrageous!

Enough!

Get out!

Filthy bastards!

Fuck off with your meat!

Well shove it up your ass!

Grab them!

Get out!

Sons of bitches!

Oyez, citizens!

As we fight to turn this real city

into an imaginary city,

we invite you to gather before the statue of Pablo Neruda,

viscous national poet.

The statue of the Invisible Man has been unveiled,

a tribute to the nobodies of this dreamless city.

No one has ever said anything.

We have always been mute!

No one has ever listened to anything!

Who are you?

I'm your girlfriend,

the woman of all your lives.

You should be the woman of all my deaths.

A drink!

Come in, my friends!

Hello!

We brought you a present.

A poet.

Poet!

The Devil.

Your innocence you shall lose.

Your dark side you shall find.

And you will create and create.

The Star.

From woman to woman you will go.

Your ideal woman you will find.

I am the man you will be.

You are the man I was.

You devoted yourself to poetry, and I do not regret it.

What will I achieve?

You will learn to die in happiness.

I'm afraid of dying.

You're afraid of living.

I'm afraid of disappointing others.

You are not guilty for living as you do.

You'd be guilty if you lived as others want you to live.

What is the meaning of life?

Life!

The brain asks questions,

the heart gives the answers.

Life does not have meaning, you have to live it!

Live!

Open the door!

Let me die, Alejandro.

Enrique, my lord, has abandoned me.

If you'd really wanted to die, you wouldn't have told Verónica.

She called me.

Why didn't she call my lord?

Enrique is drunk. It's impossible to speak to him.

Once he's sobered up, he'll come back to you.

He loves you.

He won't come back.

He wants a taller woman.

That's why he left me.

You are you, no matter your height.

What am I?

Nothing.

My lord is everything.

Come.

Come here.

There.

Pequenita, I'm your friend.

I've saved your life. Do you trust me?

Yes.

Then promise to do as I say.

All right, I promise.

I want you to close your eyes

and let me guide you as if you were blind.

Close your eyes.

Close your eyes.

You promised not to open your eyes until I say so.

I promise.

Alright.

Lift up your foot.

That's it.

I'm going to lift you up now.

Open your eyes.

Don't drop me, Alejandro!

You're crazy!

Don't drop me!

Get me out of here!

I could fall! Don't drop me.

You're insane!

You could have killed me.

See? You didn't want to die.

Dead, you wouldn't have the pleasure of breathing.

Breathe with me.

I had forgotten air existed.

- How do you feel? - Better than ever.

Let's hug.

That's it.

Life is beautiful.

Indeed it is!

Let's hug again.

You've been so kind to me.

I want to give you a present:

my sex.

But I have my period.

Do you mind?

Blood is sacred.

I've fallen off the tower!

Open the door!

Don't open.

Let's drink to the dregs.

Let's continue.

Let me in!

We should open.

You

When I lived here, when I was here...

I was at the peak.

I felt at the peak here!

I have fallen like a worm!

You treat me like a worm.

I wrote you a poem.

"Because you only feel alive

"when, arrogant, you betray me,

"I tie you up with the rope of your own limits,

"I extract you from the future like a dead muse,

"I lock you inside my mother's coffin,

"Rot amongst those wretched bones

"from which I still beg a caress!"

The bridge is broken.

Why do you do it, young lady?

I'm trying to reach oblivion.

As long as Enrique lives in my memory,

I will be a corpse.

Press the button, doctor.

Just relax.

Enrique...

Enrique...

Another seven pints, gorgeous.

I didn't...

I didn't find any flowers.

But I wanted to give you this.

Thanks.

Relax.

it's alright.

Here.

Even if this is the only thing I can obtain from you,

if that's how it is, I'll keep it...

It will always be with me.

You've suffered enough.

- Leave me alone. - No, I will not.

Leave me alone.

Look, you're small...

Go away.

I am small.

Together we can grow.

I'm not leaving you here. Let's go.

Come on, let's go.

Come with me.

That's it.

- Let go of me. - I'm not leaving you here.

You're coming with me.

Let's go.

I'm not guilty.

I'm not guilty.

I'm not guilty.

I'm not guilty.

I'm not guilty.

I'm not guilty.

I'm not guilty.

I'm not guilty.

I'm not guilty.

I'm not guilty!

May I ask you a question?

Yes.

Tell me, where did you find those shoes?

I had them made.

How come?

Because I love the circus, especially clowns.

I'm glad to hear it.

Allow me to introduce myself.

I'm Carrot, the orange clown.

I saw you perform in Tocopilla when I was a child!

I'm Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Now I understand everything.

You are one of us.

Your father and I worked in the same circus.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

Those shoes tell me

you want to go back to the world you belong to

I don't think I can do it.

If you still have a child in your soul,

you will surely succeed.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am honoured to present

the fabulous circus

The Human Eagles!

The finest and most elegant circus in the country!

Don't you agree?

Perfect!

May I come in?

What? You're already inside!

Who are you?

I'm a foreigner!

Where from?

Foreignia!

What do you want?

I want to work, Mr. Director.

What can you do?

I know how to fart.

Show me.

Now you listen here, only Chileans are allowed to fart here.

Go fart in your own country!

Filthy foreigner!

Beat him! Come on, boys!

I can't take it anymore!

I'm no one, nobody!

I feel so low. I want to kill myself!

But how?

I know!

I'll tickle myself till I die of laughter.

My best friend hates me.

I betrayed him.

I slept with his girlfriend!

Maybe she gave me syphilis!

The poor girl may have gotten pregnant!

Life is a game!

You have to laugh at everything, even the worst things!

Laugh!

Laugh!

That's it, laugh!

Suffering is stupid!

I'm not a clown.

I'm a poet!

Poet! Poet...

"I have never found you,

'I have always lost you.

"Eternally in search of the impossible encounter

"to tell you that it is you who,

"from kiss to kiss,

"from slash to slash,

''have built my dreams."

Wake up, poet.

Poet.

Better to be asleep than awake.

Better to be dead.

Better to not have been born.

Enough, Enrique.

You're destroying yourself.

We won't let you kill yourself.

Nothingness is in everything.

You're wasting your time.

Life is in everything.

Life.

It isn't you suffering.

It's the image you've made of yourself.

You're a poet!

Perceive reality differently.

Neither I nor Pequenita has taken anything from you.

I am your friend...

and shall be until I die.

For Pequenita, you are God.

Yes, you are God.

And this is your child.

Lying bitch, that foetus isn't mine!

I conceived it thinking of you!

I'm speaking to your heart.

Have pity on me.

Your name is tattooed on my soul.

If you don't love me, I'll kill myself.

If you don't love me, I'll make you love me.

If you don't love me, I'll wait for you to love me.

I deserve more.

It's everyone's child!

Baptism!

Alejandro!

Alejandro...

Dad?

Mum, what are you doing here?

The house burned down.

The house in Matucana? - Yes.

Your home.

The furniture, clothes, beds!

My writing and books?

Your writing and books?

I don't give a fuck about them!

How can you ask me such a stupid thing?

The money burned!

My money that I kept in the wardrobe

and the porcelain tableware that your mother kept...

- Since we got married! - Since we got married.

What have you turned into?

Do you have no heart?

Don't you care about anything?

I don't know who you are anymore!

You're here, with these drunkards!

of degenerates!

You disgust me!

You disgust us!

We'll stay in a hotel!

My home burned down.

How wonderful!

Farewell, childhood.

My poor mother, always hidden in this girdle.

A humble swan among vain ducks.

Loves? Balloons?

Loves?

I'll take them all.

Yes, sir.

Enough, Alejandro.

There's no need for a nest once the eagles have grown.

If you have wings, fly!

Matucana is over.

Winter is over. Spring is on its way.

It's carnival time!

Fly, man, fly!

Come on!

Fly!

And you?

Who are you?

What is the purpose of your existence?

Why are you alive?

I have never been alive,

I was born dead.

Another dead man among the dead.

Another dead man among the dead.

I will grow old,

die,

rot.

Nothingness will swallow my memory,

my words,

my consciousness.

Everything that is mine in the dark depths of oblivion.

These streets will disappear too.

My friends...

the city,

the planet!

The moon, the sun,

the stars!

The entire universe.

Damned reflection!

What do I do with this anguish you've injected into me?

Old age

is not a humiliation.

You detach yourself from everything.

From sex,

from wealth,

from fame.

You detach yourself from yourself.

You turn...

into a butterfly,

a radiant butterfly,

a being...

of pure light!

Mr. Parra.

- Alejandro. - Hello.

- How are you? - Very well.

As you can see,

your favourite poet is a maths teacher

in this engineering school.

What brings you here?

Well...

since I've distanced myself from my father,

I'd like your advice, Don Nicanor.

How can I help?

I want to devote my body and soul to poetry.

Are you mad?

Nobody pays for books anymore, even less so for poetry.

What you have to do is study,

get a degree

and work as a teacher, like me.

Don't burn your bridges, Alejandro!

Butterflies mustn't turn into flies.

Nor poets into teachers.

I'm a teacher

and I'm not turning into a fly.

The world is what it is, you won't change it.

I can't change the world but I can start to change it.

Really?

How?

By changing myself.

I will burn my bridges, Don Nicanor.

Goodbye.

Ibáñez! Ibáñez!

My horse!

Where's my horse?

I'm back!

I'm back to sweep out corruption!

Ibáñez in command, broom in hand!

You will see, everything is a lie

You will see, nothing is love

And the world does not care

It turns, it turns...

- Even if life crushes you... - Alejandro!

Alejandro, share with us the sad joy of living.

We are in Eden!

What Eden?

This country is an island.

I'm leaving, I'm going to Paris.

What will you do there?

All cities are the same, just people and streets!

I'll join André Breton's group. I'll save surrealism.

No one knows you over there.

Whereas we're all here, your friends.

There are so few of you.

They've chosen Ibáñez.

Goodbye.

Stay, Alejandro.

Leave me alone!

My father was right.

Death to Ibáñez!

Death to Ibáñez!

They'll kill him.

Alejandro, calm down! Be quiet!

Ibáñez in command, broom in hand.

Death to Ibáñez!

Death to Ibáñez...

Death to Ibáñez! You idiots!

Death to Ibáñez!

Idiots!

Shut up, Alejandro.

It's a waste of time, Alejandro. They only see him and his horse.

- Leave me alone! - Be quiet.

Leave me alone! Idiots!

Fucking fascists!

Death to Ibáñez! Idiots!

I'm leaving.

I am leaving now

For the port where awaits

The golden boat

That will carry me away

I am leaving now

I have only come to say goodbye

Farewell, poets

Farewell, forever farewell.

Alejandro!

What is this?

Not saying goodbye to your father?

Why are you here? How did you find me?

Your friend Verónica told me you were leaving Chile

with empty pockets, and that I had to help you.

But I cannot and will not finance such a stupid decision.

You don't speak a word of French!

What will you live on? Your little poems?

That's enough now!

Come back to the shop. I need a helper.

What you need is a slave!

You're no father! You never hugged me

or spoke affectionately!

Men don't touch each other,

or say sweet things to one another.

When I vomited bitter tears,

begging for a bit of affection, a bit of attention,

you let me cry for hours.

I comfort no one. You've become such a faggot!

I'm not a faggot!

I'm not like you! I have the heart of a poet.

A heart capable of loving the entire world.

The boat's calling me.

Listen to me!

You'll starve in the gutter!

You'll die surrounded by knickers and stockings

stained with the blood of the workers!

Insolent boy, I'll smash your face in!

Is that so? Try me, I'll break your bones.

I'm not a child anymore!

You'll never see me again.

I didn't know.

I've always had good intentions.

Don't leave without shaking my hand.

Don't go.

Please.

No!

Not like that!

Like this.

You went to France and never saw him again.

When he died, you didn't shed a tear,

but beneath your indifference your heart was saying...

Father,

by giving me nothing you gave me everything.

By not loving me

you taught me that love is an absolute necessity.

By denying God

you taught me to value life.

I forgive you, Jaime.

You gave him the strength to bear this world,

in which poetry no longer exists.

Recognise your father.

Remove his mask.

He's not an apparition,

he's a being!

Farewell, Father.

Thank you.

Farewell, son.

I bless you.

If ever

You feel

Deep sorrow

Let it go

Feel once more

Live the present...

I have learnt to be.

I have learnt to love.

I have learnt to create.

I have learnt to live.

Every path is my path.

Opening my heart, I hear the woes of the world.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED PRODUCE THIS FILM...

A being

of pure light!