Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Inkubo (Leslie Stevens, 1966)

- October 13th, 2024

Sunday October 13, 2024, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: INCUBUS (Inkubo) * Directed by Leslie Stevens * 1966 * 78 minutes * In Esperanto with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00 * intro & film start at 20:30.

Once there was a guy named Zamenhof who lived in Russia. In 1887 he decided to make a second language that could be spoken by everyone. His aim was to make it easier for international communication, by avoiding division which led to war. The language he invented was simple to learn, and it was called Esperanto. It’s High Point perhaps with the 1960s, an era when people wanted to end war and misunderstandings, unlike today. There is only one movie in the history of cinema that was spoken totally in Esperanto, and it’s this one.Holy cow, what planet was this movie made on? Not only is the language exceptional, but the whole mood, story and orientation is so otherworldly and oddly mysterious. We are thrown into a world without a history, with people speaking this familiar but at the same time strangely unidentifiable language. The landscape where everything takes place seems out of context, and perhaps in that way it’s like an early Jodorowsky movie. The film is surreal, pagan and supernatural. In a way, we find ourselves thrown into a bizarre world, one that works by different laws, which pits the human soul against powerful forces of nature.
Another bizarre thing about it is that it has an actor who a year later would become totally famous in the original Star Trek TV series – William Shatner. Yep, it seems he actually spoke Esperanto. Shatner was a strangely committed actor who often did movies that he believed in.
The whole movie is an incredible trip, and even though it was obviously extremely low budget it has great cinematography, and some of the images are absolutely astounding. It was thought to be lost for decades, and only recently has there been a copy discovered in archives in France.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net