The Benefactress (an Exposure of Cinematic Freedom)

Guerrilla Metropolitana returns with his second and final motion picture - The Benefactress (An Exposure of Cinematic Freedom). This is a relentless extreme film that pushes the boundaries until the boundaries break. The movie challenges the mainstream at every turn. It's worth a watch if you are into such things.

An extreme film, a sort of horror-porn like we haven't seen in a long time.

Guerrilla Metropolitana attempts his second feature film (after DARIUSS) and shocks audiences even more with THE BENEFACTRESS (an exposure of cinematic freedom) a display of cinematic freedom , as the director himself defines the film (67 minutes), acquired by Blood Pact Films, a US distribution company that released it on DVD and Blu-ray on July 31st, making it available on various streaming platforms.

THE BENEFACTRESS (an exposure of cinematic freedom) was presented to other distribution companies but received outright rejections - the director makes it a boast of freedom - because it was deemed (by one European distributor in particular) as offensive, repugnant and misogynistic . However, thanks to a courageous, not at all bigoted distributor, the film will be distributed worldwide, thanks to the fact that it was shot in English. The film is a purely underground work , evil and sadistic, violent and perverse. The style is a distinctive feature of its author, very reminiscent of DARIUSS , a film with which it forms an inseparable diptych, a true cultural manifesto of Guerrilla Metropolitana . THE BENEFACTRESS (an exposure of cinematic freedom), according to the director, represents the highest and most significant point of his work, in practice it is what he would like to remain as a symbol of his work. A largely visual film, alternating black and white with color, it begins with a narrated section, read by the protagonist and written on the screen, which acts as a prologue, a sort of monologue that develops in the subsequent images. The written section recounts the background to the previous film (DARIUSS) and explains that the new film was financed by a mysterious benefactress , a middle-aged woman with respiratory problems, married to a famous American preacher, owner of a television channel. THE BENEFACTRESS (an exposure of cinematic freedom) works under the pseudonym of Elektra McBride and asked to appear in the film via video link during the production itself. The film shows what an underground director can do with money and the support of people who seem to be against unconventional cinema, but behind the scenes contribute to its existence. Immediately after, we witness a long monologue by Juicy X , who does not reveal her identity but chooses the path of this pseudonym and recounts her previous experiences with the director. Juicy X is also called a 'benefactress' because of her big heart that convinced her to help many women victims of abuse. Sixty-seven minutes of strong, sadistic and evil cinema, a work that stands as a symbol of visual freedom; the director wants to demonstrate that an artist must not set limits but must always push forward in the name of freedom of expression. THE BENEFACTRESS (an exposure of cinematic freedom) recalls the philosophical novels of the Marquis de Sade , irreverent works like Pasolini 's Salò , touches on themes dear to the Beat Generation, reminds us of Italian authors free from conditioning such as Ruggero Deodato ( Cannibal Holocaust ), even Bruno Mattei and such Nazi eroticism as KZ9 extermination camp . Guerrilla Metropolitana intends to dedicate his latest work to the achievement of complete artistic enlightenment , placing his camera at the service of supreme art. Everything in the film is authentic, even the violence and sexual acts; the director even goes so far as to film himself performing perverse acts with a rubber phallus, exposing his naked body to the audience. Many sequences are shot in close-up, with the protagonist's face speaking to the audience-referencing similar shots by Bergman -and we witness penetrations with rubber phalluses and sex toys, all accompanied by icy music, often filmed by a frantic handheld camera that uses rapid subjective shots. The camera spies on the perverse protagonist's domestic activities, even her solitary masturbations and gratuitous acts of violence, in a sort of perverse erotic neorealism (which has nothing sensual about it) interested only in provoking disgust and repulsion. Libertine and savage, amoral and steeped in sexual sadism; after the credits, another two minutes of anal excesses involving a victim conclude an extreme film, a kind of horror porn the likes of which we haven't seen in a long time. In some sequences featuring the benefactor at the piano, we were reminded of Riz Ortolani 's captivating soundtrack, used by Deodato to underscore the more sordid moments of Cannibal Holocaust . The director confides: "Nearly 200 actresses from different parts of the world were considered but subsequently rejected. Some left for refusing to shoot extreme sexual material, others were fired because they were not considered strong enough for such roles. In the end, the choice fell on Juicy X (already the protagonist of the short film Corporate Torment - It burns like HELL ) and the artist Mystery Woman . A film shot over a weekend in a villa on the outskirts of London, without telling the owner what was going on in those rooms. "Everything is spontaneous," says the director, "the initial script was ignored to follow the inspiration of the moment. Some erotic scenes between Metropolitana (actor) and his co-star Mystery Woman are authentic, decided at the last minute, to break every taboo and avoid a classic approach. Metropolitana 's masturbation and subsequent erection in the film are authentic and filmed live. The shots include a hysterical and realistic use of the handheld camera, with diagonal moving shots, some visually exaggerated by an elaborate experimental editing. The photography goes from a dark expressionistic black and white to bright colors and deliberately dirty parts. Jake Random 's Arabian music - designed to exacerbate the sadistic madness of the visual context - gives way to the experimental and psychedelic rhythms of the band Monoxide . The performers (Juicy X and Mystery Woman) go beyond any orthodox acting scheme and use their bodies to give erotic realism to every scene. New Zealand writer Del Gibson defined the film as Metropolitana 's absolute masterpiece and - after seeing the latest work - decided to write a book on the director's cinema entitled SEARCHING FOR THE PERFECT BUTTERFLY - The shocking cinema of visionary underground filmmaker Guerrilla Metropolitana . The well-known American horror critic Meredith J. Brown wrote of the film: " Guerrilla Metropolitana proves himself to be a vigorous and unapologetic visionary, both in terms of beauty and evil. A disturbing film that goes far beyond the known categories of hidden perversions. Metropolitana is unapologetic in showing you his true art and what drives him to behave differently." A work that is not for everyone, and above all, it should not be seen as an entertainment film, but as an exercise in style, an unusual work that pushes artistic ideals beyond all limits.

The Benefactoress by Guerilla Metropolitan is a bold, unsettling yet thought-provoking film. It pushes boundaries with its raw narrative and striking visuals. While not for the faint-hearted, the creativity and daring effort deserve recognition.

I love it personally as for the creativity and all the effort has been used.

A bold step into the past of grindhouse artistic film Dark, Gritty, and un nearving If you want to take a trip to the beyound what is possible than look no further this film will take up to the depths of the shadows and make you wonder what is next.

This is Dark art at its finest.

Jack Russel The Todd Jaeger Experience.

Watched over by a wealthy benefactor, a woman begins to toy with and sexually denigrate her unnamed captor for the whims and perverse pleasures it provides for both participants, but when it starts to blur the lines of fantasy and reality, their seedy director pushes them further along.

Overall, this was a troublesome production. The idea of this one, focusing on the depravity and degradation that takes place throughout the shoot, all for the sake of producing some of the deranged imagery involved, leads to some incredibly brutal and harsh ideas. With the relentless sexually-charged atmosphere here displaying all sorts of crude tortures and humiliating showcase pieces against a clearly unwilling recipient makes for an uncomfortable experience the longer it goes on, from toying with her using toys and other such stimulants to everyday objects around the house, and the more disturbing shenanigans that have a part in what's going on. The constant stream of nudity and overtly obvious inserts of the gimp-masked figure playing with themselves, with everything happening around them in an escalating series of encounters, which helps to add an uncomfortable touch on top of everything. Beyond that, there's not much to this one. The abject lack of a plot makes for such an utterly repetitive setup where the film keeps going for sexual degeneracy and depravity that it becomes bland and annoying. The different tactics that are employed with their sexual proclivities just wear their shocking nature, just for how often it all continues happening, so the whole thing just becomes a slough of the same thing happening over and over again. It fails to become shocking the amount of time it keeps going for the same concept over and over since it has little idea what to do next, with there not being much in the way of a storyline beyond just a concept. As well as the arthouse style-approach to filming that might make for an off-putting experience at times, this is what holds it back overall.

Rated Unrated/NC-17: Extreme Constant Male and Female Nudity, Hardcore Sexual Content, Graphic Language, Violence, and constant rape scenes.