THE HOLY MOUNTAIN
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky Run Time: 114 min. Release Year: 1973 Language: Spanish
Starring: Adriana Page, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Horacio Salinas, Juan Ferrara, Zamira Saunders
The scandal of the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, writer/director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s flood of sacrilegious imagery and existential symbolism in The Holy Mountain is a spiritual quest for enlightenment pitting illusion against truth. The Alchemist (Jodorowsky) assembles together a group of people from all walks of life to represent the planets in the solar system. The occult adept’s intention is to put his recruits through strange mystical rites and divest them of their worldly baggage before embarking on a trip to Lotus Island. There they ascend the Holy Mountain to displace the immortal gods who secretly rule the universe.