LITAN
dir. Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1982
France, 87 min

Nora and Jock arrive in the strange village of Litan during the Festival of the Dead.

Co-written, produced, edited, directed by and starring Jean-Pierre Mocky, Litan loosely follows Nora, who is deeply concerned about her husband, Jock (actual spelling), after she has a nightmare he's been killed. Soon, townsfolk are wandering around as if hypnotized, and a boy scout drowns in an underground cavern.

The 'plot' quickly devolves into a Boschian nightmare, drifting between a mad scientist and a bumbling police chief, among others, but plot is not really the point here, spinning ever further into a foggy dreamworld. Part art-house fever dream, part giallo, and yet entirely its own thing, Litanis as darkly comedic as it is unsettling and grotesque.