“No one is owner of anything, not even ourselves.”
(In a dark basement) Norma hears the faint voice of Everio and her own, from an Ampex vintage tape recorder. They have been talking incessantly, and *oftentimes the taped conversations coincide with their *chats. The only thing troubling Norma is that until that day, she and Everio had never met and the last she heard was Everio strangling her.
Director
Screenplay
Status
Released
Original Language
ES
Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.
