Directed by Carlos Atanes
Review by David Carter


Released by Kalashni Films
Running Time: 81 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Color format: Color
Audio/Subtitles: 2.0 Stereo Spanish/English Subtitles
Region Code: 1, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
16:9 Enhanced: No
Special Features: None
Trailer Online: Yes

Experimental/avant-garde cinema is a foreign concept to most people, including even most cinema lovers. Usually this is through no fault of their own; most experimental films that make it to DVD rarely get much attention, if any. When they do show up on DVD it’s most often on anthology discs like CODEX ATANICUS from Spanish director Carlos Atanes. Atanes is considered one of Spain’s foremost science fiction directors (look for a review of his feature film PROXIMA here at Film Fanaddict soon) but prior to moving to features he made several well-regarded experimental shorts. Three of them are included in this collection: METAMINDS & METABODIES, MORFING, and WELCOME TO SPAIN.

All three are non-narrative to a large degree but at least have a central theme in place of plot elements. The possible exception to this is MORFING, which contains a sequence before the short featuring the director as he frets over getting funding and stars for the piece. MORFING is the key to understanding these three works as it shows Atanes himself exploring many of his subjects in a tongue-in-cheek manner. It is the second piece on the disc but by far the most accessible, so you might want to watch it first. Atanes takes a Lynchian approach to filmmaking and curiously even physically resembles Lynch to a degree. The actual piece MORFING is a very brief exploration of the mind and the body; Atanes’ two most prevalent themes.

First on the disc is the challenging METAMINDS & METABODIES, which uses a series of mirrors to imply levels of reality. Almost all scenes are filmed through a mirror’s reflection (and sometimes through multiple mirrors) and there is a lengthy interplay between a character in the assumed actuality of the film and a woman who only exists in the mirror. He later meets the woman outside of the mirror’s image but she is a gross distortion of the idealized version he saw before. In WELCOME TO SPAIN, Atanes continues to delve into the human subconscious in a dreamlike (nightmarish?) story of man returning to his childhood home.

CODEX ATANICUS is an impressive but difficult collection of shorts; difficult in the sense that Atanes’ work is likely to appeal to only a small segment of film fans. As noted above, David Lynch fans will probably get the most enjoyment out of this collection due to the similar styles and themes the two directors use. That certainly isn’t to say that CODEX ATANICUS is limited in its appeal, however. I found the collection to be odd but enjoyable and Atanes has a unique and powerful cinematic vision.