Adriana Davidova in "Síndrome" [Spain, 2004]

Liberto Rabal is known more as an actor than a director - the fact remains that to date his 2004 drama, "Síndrome" is his only full length feature. The first time I saw the film I was quite impressed by the unconventional filmmaking, but after watching this again more recently, I take a different view.

There are several loose ends in the plot, and the actors are never convincing enough, either to tie them together, or even to make it sound plausible. Adriana Davidova, the lead actress playing 'Ana', also co-wrote the screenplay, but the script fails to establish clearly why the siblings were drawn together into an incestuous relationship. The film tries to explore several themes - the 'Stockholm' syndrome is never as convincingly portrayed as in Eriprando Visconti's "La Orca", the S&M is neither here nor there, and the relationship between Ana and her former lover is plainly ludicrous. Technically, the film is poorly made, the editing among the worst from Spain - and they used a lot of unwanted digital effects and techniques which ruins the whole thing - it looks more like a school project (a school that would tolerate nudity obviously) rather than a thoughtful and well planned work.

I had posted some scenes from this film earlier, but I was still learning how to cut quality clips from a DVD then. I've re-cut scenes from the same DVD using my much improved technique, and I think this is about the best quality you're gonna get anywhere for now.



Scene 1:
Ana is introduced to us in bath with her brother, and waking up with him from the same bed the following morning.






Scene 2:
A mix of various scenes following Ana through her chores, along with some explicit scenes involving Ana and her brother - they talk later as if it was their first time - I'm surprised it took them this long to go all the way, considering their intimacy throughout the film!






Scene 3:
This is my own edit of several scenes, starting from Ana's lover longing for her - he is dying from a terminal disease, and wants to 'change' Ana's ways, and so kidnaps and keeps her like a captured animal - the 'training' has begun - there is an explicit scene here as well - just watch for yourself as it's impossible to cap it.






Scene 4:
This is supposed to be Ana going through her 'healing process', and later brooding by her dead boyfriend/former lover. Don't ask me what happened to her 'Fragile' tattoo here - I don't know..!




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