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MOEBIUS
TWILIGHT ZONE fans take note: this 1997 horror/sci fi movie from Argentina is for you. Combining a compellingly offbeat story with some very potent (and disturbing) political overtones, this is an intriguing, innovative and unprecedented film that deserves a US release…which to date it hasn’t attained.
The Package
Director Gustavo Mosquera proved with his previous feature, the grim
futuristic parable TIMES TO COME (LO QUE VENDRA; 1988), that he’s a talent to
watch; it demonstrated a stunningly assured visual sense but was a bit thin
conceptually. MOEBIUS, which ratifies the former film’s flaws with a vengeance,
was made as a film school project, with the director credited as “Prof.” Gustavo
Mosquera. That approach can be deadly—Brian DePalma made HOME MOVIES (1980)
with his NYU students and ended up with a near-unwatchable mess—but definitely
not in this case. With MOEBIUS, Mosquera and his students managed to craft
sleek and stylish visuals complimented by a tight, compelling narrative (based
on the short story “A Subway Named Mobius” by A.J. Detsch…and a screenplay
credited to SIX writers!).
The bad news is that this film, a definite audience pleaser (as proven by
numerous successful screenings at film festivals around the world), has somehow
managed to elude an American release. Those in search of evidence supporting
the short sightedness of US distributors need look no further.
The Story
In the bowels of a busy subway system, a train and its forty or so
passengers mysteriously vanish one morning, seemingly into thin air. The
“missing” train doesn’t show up on any of its regular stops, and searches for it
yield nothing. Yet it can still be heard at certain times, and the system’s
intricately worked out system of tracks and signals continues to function as if
the train were still running.
The system engineer is called in to check things out, but declines, instead
dispatching Daniel, a mathematically minded young protégée, in his place. The
inquisitive Daniel’s first stop is the home of the mysterious Dr. Mistein, who
is nowhere to be found, but has the plans for the subway system’s layout stashed
in his house.
Having formulated a completely outrageous solution to the problem of the
missing subway train, Daniel calls a meeting with the subway’s superiors. His
idea is that the subway system, with its countless add-ons over the years, has
become so incredibly labyrinthine a gigantic moebius strip was unwittingly
created which the missing train is now trapped on (a moebius strip can be
created, FYI, by taking a strip of paper, folding it once and then joining the
ends together—running along it, you’ll find yourself transversing both
sides of the paper, with no end in sight). The superiors refuse to listen,
opting to simply shut the system down and banish Daniel. Yet he continues his
investigation, until one night when he boards a subway on his way home…and
discovers, to his shock, that he’s aboard the missing train. A walk to the head
of the train provides an even greater shock: the elusive Dr. Mistein is driving
it…
A note on the story’s political overtones: during the seventies and early
eighties over 40,000 political dissidents “vanished” from Argentina, a grievance
the current administration apparently prefers to keep under wraps. It’s not
difficult to see the symbolism in this film’s premise of a passenger packed
subway train vanishing…or the fact that the higher-ups so thoroughly reject the
hero’s studied explanation. A key line spoken near the end bears more than a
passing significance: “We live in a world where nobody listens.”
The Direction
Like fellow Argentine Jorge Luis Borges (whose name adorns a station seen
near the end), Gustavo Mosquera takes a seemingly simple premise and invests it
with a wealth of real-life significance. Over half the film takes place
underground, with numerous shots of dark, dingy tunnels through which the
protagonist must make his way in order to solve the mystery. The details of its
unraveling, with great respect paid the fantastic, would surely make Rod Serling
proud.
The lighting is superb, particularly in the contrast between the staid neon
of the subway stations and the warm, inviting hews emanating from the trains
themselves. In this way the trains are made to seem like chariots to Heaven,
carrying their passengers away from the strife of this world, an effect
completed by incredible, exhilarating POV shots zooming through subway tunnels
at impossible speeds, the lights of passing stations literally streaking by.
Mosquera reportedly achieved these shots himself with a personally retrofitted
camera; quite an achievement, considering that he was working with an extremely
limited budget and a student crew. We can only wonder what Mosquera might
achieve with Hollywood-sized resources…but, based on this film’s fate thus far,
it seems we’re destined to keep wondering.
Vital Statistics
MOEBIUS
Universidad Del Cine
Director/Producer: Gustavo
Mosquera R.
Screenplay: Pedro Cristiani, Gabriel Lifschitz, Arturo Onatavia, Natalia Urruty,
Maria Angeles Mira, Gustavi Mosquera R.
(Based on a story by A.J. Deutsch)
Cinematography: Abel
Penalba
Editor: Alejandro Brodersohn, Pablo Georgelli
Cast: Guillermo Agelelli, Roberto Carnaghi, Annabella Levy, Jorge Petraglia,
Miguel Angel Paludi, Fernando Llosa, Martin Adjemian, Daniel Di Biase, Jean
Pierre Reguerraz, Martin Pavlovsky, Felipe Mendez, Fernando Cia, Osvaldo Santoro