Moebius

One of the most powerful and controversial films of the last decade. Moebius is Korean maestro-provocateur Kim Ki-duk's most audacious work to date — and that's saying something. This disturbing yet cathartic film is a potent metaphor for a contemporary society morbidly obsessed with its own sexuality. It is also a reflection on incest, and that visceral bond that connects each of us to the parents who made us — in an endless loop like the "Möebius strip" suggested by the title.

Observed by their adolescent son (Seo Young-ju), a couple's fight over the husband's infidelity turns to a grotesque calamity. After failing to sever her husband's penis, the infuriated wife chooses instead to dismember her son in order to hurt his father. Family violence sparks a chain of events that culminates in a dramatic epilogue of destruction.

Not a silent film but a wordless one, Moebius bears the clear mark of Kim's singular genius. It's a modern Greek tragedy bordering on psychological thriller, a pitchblack comedy, a crazy-weird depiction of pain-induced pleasure — in all cases, a sheer work of art, lucid and coherent in its shocking madness. Extracting remarkable performances from Cho Jae-hyun as the father, Lee Eun-woo as both the mother and the husband's lover, and especially from Seo, Kim once again rewards his valiant audience with mesmerizing art. This is pure cinema — at its most brilliantly transgressive.

GIOVANNA FULVI