Eisenstein in Guanajuato (Netherlands/Mexico/Finland/Belgium)

In English and Spanish

In 1931, the master Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein traveled to Mexico to make (but never finish) a film financed by American socialist author Upton Sinclair.

Eighty-odd years later, master British provocateur Peter Greenaway decided to fill the gaps in this strange tale, focusing on the wild-haired Russian’s out-and-loving-it dalliance with his local guide, the too perfectly named Palomino Cañedo.

This being a Greenaway movie, we’re made vividly aware that the Mexican boasted an equine cock to match his name.

Greenaway has been disappearing up his own arse for so long now that we’ve forgotten how bawdily alive his movies can be. Eisenstein in Guanajuato is breathlessly entertaining, drips with the filmmaker’s baroque and restless invention, and is likely far too smart to exist in a world like this (kill it with a stick!)

It’s also eager to wallow in the muck, vomit, piss and cum that generally accompanies a visit to Mexico by a puffy Communist gringo with a dawning interest in sexual decadence, something that happens to coincide very nicely with Greenaway’s own corporeal obsessions.

Easily the most fun I’ve ever had watching two men fuck, and my God—the art direction!

Eisenstein in Guanajuato screens at the Playhouse on August 13 (7 p.m.) and at International Village on August 22 (4:30 p.m.) as part of the 2015 Vancouver Queer Film Festival.