El Príncipe

A young man, apparently having committed a shocking murder in a nightclub, is sent to prison in 1970's Chile. The prison is small and filthy, with men sharing beds, and homosexuality so rife it may as well be a gay bar.

The young man, known as "the Prince", is chosen to replace another youth in the bed of "the Stallion", apparently the master of this domain. He is immediately sexually assaulted by "the Stallion" - at least it appeared as such to me. This brutal beginning to their relationship doesn't stop romance from blossoming, strangely enough.

Interspersed are flashbacks to the friendship the Prince shared with a young man known as the Gypsy, which eventually led to the pivotal violence. There is also a bizarre sequence where Prince apparently has sex with his own mother (?).

This could have been an effective story, but the constant focus on sex makes it feel more like pornography, even down to the nonchalant attitude toward sexual assault. You don't see enough of the characters to get a feel for who they're supposed to be, and you certainly don't care about the protagonist.