Having already caused a minor tabloid furore with the UK debut of their pornographic play "XXX", Spanish theatre troupe La Fura del Baus venture behind the camera for the first time with "Fausto 5.0", a modern reworking of the Faust myth set in a near-future Barcelona.
When Dr Faust (Miguel Ángel Solá) arrives in the city to attend a medical conference, he bumps into Santos Vella (Eduard Fernández), a loud-mouthed fixer who claims to be an ex-patient and offers to make the doctor's stay as comfortable as possible. Faust tries to shake him off, but Vella says he'll grant him anything he wishes...
Using the Faust story as a jumping off point, "Fausto 5.0" turns out to be more interested in the set designer's vision of an apocalyptic cyberpunk cityscape than in Faust's psychological state. Which is presumably why the story's spiritual dimension, the battle for Faust's soul, is played out in locations that echo his plight.
With its hospital settings (full of decaying bodies), fetish clubs (where naked partygoers gyrate on chains hanging from the ceiling), and psychotic vision of a "Blade Runner"-style cityscape of polluted, rubbish-strewn streets, "Fausto 5.0" makes each new location a milestone on Faust's descent into a hell of his own making.
Although unlikely to court as much controversy as the "XXX" stage play, "Fausto 5.0" still has its fair share of disturbing moments, from Faust's explicit seduction by (what appears to be) a 12-year-old nymphette, to a scene in which the doctor awakes to discover that Vella has cut open his abdomen and is letting a dog eat his intestines "because he's hungry".
Never has the battle for one man's soul seemed so surreal.
In Spanish with English subtitles
Fausto 5.0 (2003)
