In an unprecised future, the civilized world has been wiped out and the new humanity lives in small rural villages, where a very primitive neo-religion and superstition are the masters.
This religion warns against the constant snares of the devil and imposes all sorts of prohibitions, including the desire for knowledge.
One of those prohibitions is to eat or come into contact with what is believed to be the flower of the devil, the "chiza".
Actually, it is a very sweet flower with hallucinogenic effects which however open the mind to knowledge: this is whay it is forbidden to eat it.
Anyone who violates this moral law is banished from the village and exiled to the mountain with the other sinners.
Actually, those sinners are all boys and children, because their innate curiosity has led them to do the opposite of what was forbidden.
Every year the children of the mountain must provide the villagers with a girl who has had menstruation (for reproductive purposes) and a boy who is able to lift a certain weight (as a field worker).
But when children refuse to fulfill this barbaric pact, things take the worst possible turn: one of them is brutally killed and hung naked from a tree in the center of the village.
Some villagers object that they exaggerated acting that way, and are killed as sinners too.
The children, in revenge, with a magical rite, cut off the village's water supplies and this leads to the death of all the inhabitants.
Although it may appear dystopian, in fact it is a strongly allegorical film, full of symbolism as well - which I think wants to warn us about the danger of elevating conformism and single thought to dogma.
So the new superstitious religion is nothing but the conformism that wants us to be ignorant consumers of anything they would us to get.
The chiza flower has many similarities with the biblical fruit of sin which, if eaten, would have brought to knowledge. And, you know, knowledge is dangerous for today's globalized and consumerist world.
And the exile (the rejection of the title) of those who dared to eat the flower is nothing more than the today's attempt to control the thought through the ban of those who do not conform to the single thought.
Ultimately, it is an authentic masterpiece for people who are free and used to thinking for themselves. Others will probably find it a stupid and senseless movie. Poor them!
This religion warns against the constant snares of the devil and imposes all sorts of prohibitions, including the desire for knowledge.
One of those prohibitions is to eat or come into contact with what is believed to be the flower of the devil, the "chiza".
Actually, it is a very sweet flower with hallucinogenic effects which however open the mind to knowledge: this is whay it is forbidden to eat it.
Anyone who violates this moral law is banished from the village and exiled to the mountain with the other sinners.
Actually, those sinners are all boys and children, because their innate curiosity has led them to do the opposite of what was forbidden.
Every year the children of the mountain must provide the villagers with a girl who has had menstruation (for reproductive purposes) and a boy who is able to lift a certain weight (as a field worker).
But when children refuse to fulfill this barbaric pact, things take the worst possible turn: one of them is brutally killed and hung naked from a tree in the center of the village.
Some villagers object that they exaggerated acting that way, and are killed as sinners too.
The children, in revenge, with a magical rite, cut off the village's water supplies and this leads to the death of all the inhabitants.
Although it may appear dystopian, in fact it is a strongly allegorical film, full of symbolism as well - which I think wants to warn us about the danger of elevating conformism and single thought to dogma.
So the new superstitious religion is nothing but the conformism that wants us to be ignorant consumers of anything they would us to get.
The chiza flower has many similarities with the biblical fruit of sin which, if eaten, would have brought to knowledge. And, you know, knowledge is dangerous for today's globalized and consumerist world.
And the exile (the rejection of the title) of those who dared to eat the flower is nothing more than the today's attempt to control the thought through the ban of those who do not conform to the single thought.
Ultimately, it is an authentic masterpiece for people who are free and used to thinking for themselves. Others will probably find it a stupid and senseless movie. Poor them!
