Where do you start when reviewing a film such as this? At the outset it can be said to be very different. But it's such an improbable and unpredictable mixture of gurus, initiations, drugs, body piercings, euthanasia, doctors,religious publications, charlatans and sex! Only the most imaginative writer could conceive such a script! It's a satire of course and the scriptwriter is pointing an accusing finger at the goings-on in this questionable world in which we live. Strangely enough,I find it positively entertaining apart from a couple of excruciatingly painful scenes (I am sure all males will agree!) Hans Teeuwen plays the main role of Alfred, a naive Palestinian guy who ends up as a member of a strange sect. Naming him Ramses, the members, garbed in biblical robes and bodies liberally pierced with metal rings, begin to prepare Ramses for an experimental sharing of a drug absorbed through the marrow of the shinbone. They are an unruly-looking lot and the worst of them all is the chief guru, Kahn Guru, referred to as Kangaroo, a man of awful demeanor and sadistic power. The question of euthanasia comes up when Ramses and his sister visit their dying father in an Amsterdam hospital. Ramses refuses to sign any papers until his father concurs. Unfortunately, father is in a coma and cannot speak until Ramses anoints him with an unproven remedy, provided by a guru who foretells the coming of a new Palestinian Messiah. Father insists on being kept alive until his sins have been forgiven. The scriptwriter pulls out all stops for the concluding scenes when huge neon crosses are erected on the top of a tall building and bed-ridden father is hoisted up to be present when the Messiah arrives. It's ridiculous to an extreme, but keeps one guessing at what can possibly happen next e.g. the appearance of a glow in the sky rapidly advancing towards the assembled believers creates interest and a feeling of anticipation..... After watching this film (dare I admit it?) a couple of times, these often quoted words come to mind: "All the world's queer except thee and me, and even thee's a little queer!"
