HOLY BEASTS

• Geraldine Chaplin
• Udo Kier
• Jackie Ludueña

Mexican filmmaker Israel Cárdenas and Dominican filmmaker Laura Amelia Guzmán collaborate on this metacinematic drama. In it, a veteran and forgotten actress reunites with her colleagues from the 1970s to shoot her final film—the unfinished project of a dear friend. Initially, the project seems poised for success (from Caribbean settings to musical numbers), but it gradually becomes more complicated. The protagonist must confront the ghosts of her past to bring it to fruition. The film’s major incentive is that the two leading characters are portrayed by genuine stars from the 1970s: Geraldine Chaplin and Udo Kier.

Aging punk diva Vera arrives in Santo Domingo to direct a musical film. Welcoming her are two other old friends, the producer and the cinematographer, with whom Vera spent the golden years of their youth together as an artistic troupe. The Caribbean production is sumptuous, the musical numbers are grand. But mysterious forces threaten the shoot and death begin to creep up on the haunted production.