Cinema – Kidlat Tahimik – Perfumed Nightmare

Dedicated to the work of filmmaker and sculptor Kidlat Tahimik, the films shown in the public programme of the 35th Bienal de São Paulo expand on the poetics of the artist, who is renowned for his caustic and unique sense of humour in portraying Filipino cultures as a counterpoint to ongoing cultural imperialism. In Perfumed Nightmare, 1977 (95′) – the filmmaker’s debut feature – Tahimik narrates and stars in the role of a young peasant who wants to live the American dream in a mixture of documentary and ethnographic parody, a surreal and humorous fable.