Perfumed Nightmare

A young Filipino drives a Jeepney for a living and dreams of America. He always has Voice of America on. One day, his wish to visit the ‘promised land’ seems to come true in a roundabout way. An American takes him to Paris and Bavaria. In Paris his job is to fill his boss’s chewing gum machines. The carrot on a stick? A Concorde flight to the USA.

Kidlat Tahimik’s colourful film ironically, delicately disassembles the myth of America. The man frees himself from the yoke of the American Dream, of superjets and supermarkets and gets to know himself and his own culture. Tahimik used groundbreaking editing and fantastic visual metaphors for this wondrous mix of Filipino mythology and surrealist poetry that has been compared to Godard and Rivette. The Berlin squatting scene – where Tahimik lived – also discovered a kindred spirit.

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