Plot
Klaus, a former Nazi doctor, practiced horrific, sadomasochistic experiments on children during World War II. After the war, he goes into exile in a remote village in Catalonia, where he continues to rape and torture young boys. He kills his latest victim with a blow to the head, taking photographs of the crime. Angelo, one of Klaus' victims, spies on him from a window, and steals incriminating writings and photographs of the doctor's crimes. Klaus tries to commit suicide by jumping from a tower. He survives, but he is left paralyzed and unable to breathe on his own, confined permanently in an iron lung to survive. Some years later, Klaus is being taken care of by his wife Griselda and their young daughter Rena in a large gloomy house in the country. Griselda is unhappy in Spain and, overwhelmed by the task of looking after her husband, secretly wishes he would just die. Angelo appears, offering his services as a nurse to help take care of Klaus. Griselda takes an instant dislike towards Angelo and does not want to hire him, but Klaus insists that he should stay. In reality, Angelo has no actual nursing skills, which Griselda soon discovers, but even then Klaus refuses to get rid of him. Angelo's true aim is revealed to be not only to take his revenge out on Klaus, but to ultimately take his place as a torturer. Angelo reads Klaus passages from the diaries he stole in which the doctor describes, in detail, how he tortured his victims. Recreating what Klaus did to him, Angelo strips and masturbates in front of Klaus. He then calls Griselda. She tries to run away, but he kills her, hanging her from the rails of the second floor. The next day, Angelo fires the housekeeper, taking over the house with Rena's help. Rena is not disturbed by her mother's absence, as Griselda was abusive towards her. Rena feels far more comfortable under Angelo's care. Angelo continues with the doctor's experiments, bringing young boys to Klaus in his iron lung. Angelo lures a child to the house and ties him to a chair. In front of Klaus, Angelo kills the boy by injecting him through the heart with a needle filled with gasoline. He brings in another boy, forces him to sing and kills him by cutting his throat. Fearing that Angelo will kill him and Rena, Klaus tells his daughter to run away to the near village with a message asking for help. Angelo discovers Rena while she is trying to escape and brings her back to the house. He dominates her, assuming a perverse, violent "parental" role. Finally Angelo removes Klaus from his iron lung and lets him die of asphyxiation while emulating the scene of his own abuse, in Rena's presence. Once Klaus is dead, Angelo takes his identity totally, getting into the artificial lung, and makes Rena take his.Cast
Production
The film was the directorial debut of the Spanish filmmakerReception
''In a Glass Cage'' received generally positive reviews. Stephen Holden of '' The New York Times'' praised the film as "an elegant, unsettling first feature by the young Spanish writer and director Agustin Villaronga, is aControversy
In 1995, ''In a Glass Cage'' was submitted to the Australian Classification Board (ACB) by organisers of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival. However, the film was refused classification, effectively banning it from being sold or exhibited in Australia. A DVD release of the film was similarly prohibited from release by the ACB in February 2005. In the United Kingdom, the film was never submitted for classification to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), likely out of fear that it would be banned.Home media
''In a Glass Cage'' was released on DVD in the United States on 25 May 2004 by Cult Epics. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles. The bonus feature includes a brief interview with directorReferences
Further reading
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* * * {{Agustí Villaronga 1986 drama films 1986 LGBT-related films 1986 films BDSM in films 1980s business films Catalan films Films directed by Agustí Villaronga Films about child abuse Films about death Films about diseases Films about dysfunctional families Films about child sexual abuse Films about intellectual disability Films about pedophilia Films about psychiatry Films about rape Films about suicide Films set in country houses Films set in Spain Films shot in Spain LGBT-related drama films Films about Nazis LGBT-related controversies in film Obscenity controversies in film Political drama films Spanish drama films Spanish independent films 1980s Spanish-language films Spanish LGBT-related films Women and death Films scored by Javier Navarrete 1986 directorial debut films