The Valdepenas

The Valdepenas is reminiscent of a Fellini film: vivid, surrealistic, and stylistically dazzling. Like Fellini, it also blends humor with heartbreak, goodness with moral frailty, and the absurd with matters profound-all of it spiced with a touch of the obscene and an occasional stunning vulgarity.

The Setting is Corbodera, an island off the coast of Spain. It is here that Marion Carter, the wealthiest woman in the world, has settled for the summer season. Around her is gathered an exotic salon; a small coterie of fellow vacationers who, while passionately presenting their views about life, await the flowering of the fabled valdepeña plant. The leisurely mood soon turns ominous, however, as this privileged community await a bizarre and predetermined fate.