La sonámbula

It took Spanish director Fernando Spiner four years to make this breathtakingly rendered account of a near future (the year 2010) in which the Argentine government freely uses citizens for experiments in mind control. In keeping with the notion of an authoritarian society wherein sameness is a virtue, Spiner filmed most of the story in black and white. Occasional glimpses of color provide hints that the gray world the protagonists experience may not be real. Along with 3,000 other citizens, Eva (Sofia Viruboff) is one day arrested and sent to the Center for Psychobiological Research where she is exposed to an amnesia-producing gas. She reawakens to discover herself given a new identity. At night, Eva dreams vividly in color, oblivious to the fact that the lunatic Dr. Gazzar (Lorenzo Quintero) is taping and watching her every internal scene. Her dreams lead Gazzar to deduce that Eva was once married to one of the government's most wanted terrorists, Gauna. Eva escapes, and Santos, the security chief for the Social Control Department, assigns Ariel Kluge (Eusebio Ponce) to follow her to Gauna's hideout and to kill the terrorist. A double-agent wanting to escape, Kluge teams up with Eva, who still isn't sure of her identity, and hits the road with Santos and Gazzaro following closely behind them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide