Editor
In 2013 a psychiatric clinic which served for more than 50 years caring for patients in Mexico City was demolished. A few months before its demolition, four young men came to investigate the clinic, determined to discover the truth about rumors of strange and paranormal events, recording everything with which they encounter. Today, the whereabouts of these four young men are unknown, remaining only fragments of their recordings.
Thanks
Susana Barriga’s documentary, the illusion, begins with violence. A long shot reveals a man standing on a street corner, his features indiscernible in the night. He moves out of the camera’s line of vision, but the filmmaker, persistent, moves with him as the jostling of the camera marks her steps. As we learn moments later, the man in the distance is Susana’s father – and this is the clearest image of him we will have. Suddenly, an angry British man demands that Susana cease filming. Susana protests in heavily accented English, “He is my father!” Glimpses of a man’s torso are followed by blurred images as the camera spins rapidly over surfaces. The image cuts to black. A new male voice asks in carefully spaced out words if Susana would like him to call the police. When she doesn’t respond immediately, he speaks louder, as though volume would compensate for the language difference. She gives her name; she refuses the offer of an ambulance.
