Already being touted as an Italian Almodovar, director Pappi Corsicato’s exotic extravaganza is a quasi-surreal portrait of three Neapolitan women. The second of the stories has the film’s most overtly gay theme in which Carmela’s handsome homosexual son discovers his “mother” is more than he ever dreamed. A visual delight, shot through with a bizarre sense of humor and decor, director Corsicato is a talent to discover and to watch.

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Set in a working TV production office, this film follows a team producing a low-end, tacky soap opera. Executive producer Jo is leaving, and emotionally vulnerable Mark is up for the job. He’s stressed over the anniversary of his lover’s death from AIDS and by his crush on Bill, who has just broken up with his girlfriend. The tension is compounded by the homophobia of the executives upstairs and by the secret erotic skirmishes behind closed doors. The TV they produce becomes the characters’ mirror, and the film is a satire, but one that is much more than parody.

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Lulu portrays the sexual odyssey of one woman and, in scenes that are both funny and deeply shocking, gives new meaning to the term “fag hag”—Lulu not only wants to “hang out” with gay boys, but she also winds up as the sandwich in a series of sexual couplings with Banderas look-alikes that include group sex, handcuffs, and shavings. Politically incorrect and wildly sensual, director Bigas Luna (Jamon Jamon, Bilbao) makes countryman Almodóvar look like Ron Howard in what must be this festival’s most daring film.

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