I received a copy of 'O Fantasma' from Amazon in the mail last week. It is quite a surreal piece of cinematography. The main character is a loner - listless, restless - a hot young Portuguese garbageman named Sergio who descends into a confused world in between reality and fantasy - triggered by his confusion of who he is and those whom he fixates his carnal desires on. He has a particular affiliation with dogs, and ends up devolving into one himself. In the end, he has destroyed everything of his previous life - his 'girlfriend', the boy he obsesses over, his job. He ends up a destitute sub-human existing in the landfill. And that's where the movie ends.
There was hardly any dialogue, most of the action takes place at night or in dark places, and some scenes are very long and drawn out (which adds to the distress the main character is going through as he loses touch with reality), but the descent is fascinating and disturbing to watch. The opening scene has Sergio dressed in a black latex catsuit fucking a guy that is gagged and cuffed. His random and dirty sexual romps increase in intensity and risk, and by the time he has kidnapped Joao, he is wearing his latex 24/7. The scenes of Joao's abduction and kidnapping are particularly disturbing. I think once Sergio grasped what he had just done, he completely goes over the edge, transforms into a dog-like animal and escapes to the landfill.
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