Bibliotheque Pascal

BIBLIOTHEQUE PASCAL is unlike any film you have ever seen. Mona is a sad-eyed mother called in for questioning by child protection services after leaving her young daughter with a fortune-telling aunt. As she sits in the drab social worker's office, she begins to spin the tale of her life, which turns into the increasingly colorful and astonishing film we're watching. After a series of surreal mishaps, Mona is sold in slavery to a trendy and frighteningly debauched Liverpool brothel. At the Bibliotheque Pascal, well-read patrons act out their violent sexual fantasies with Joan of Arc, Pinocchio, Lolita, and – inescapably – Desdemona. Pascal, the bordello owner, is an alarmingly jovial fellow who gives Mona feel-good drugs and suits her up for her final destination. Escape from this hell seems impossible. But, fortunately, it seems that both Mona and her daughter are able to project their dreams onto other people's reality. Though whose reality is this, anyway? (In Romanian, Hungarian, and English with subtitles) – B.B.