Beyond the Black Rainbow

Filmmaker Panos Cosmatos offers an idiosyncratic sci-fi vision in this futuristic fantasy. In the year 1983, Dr. Mercurio Arboria (Scott Hylands) is a physician who, working with the government, has created a new program of physical therapy and medicine which is intended to bring people greater happiness and freedom than they've ever enjoyed before. However, one of the test subjects in Arboria's new scheme, Elena (Eva Allan), isn't so impressed -- she spends her days in a drug-addled haze while kept in a massive hospital complex against her will. Dr. Barry Nyle (Michael Rogers) is looking after Elena's day-to-day progress with the help of his nurse Margo (Rondel Reynoldson), but his efforts to reshape her mind are only so successful, and in time Elena becomes just conscious enough of her circumstances to plan an escape. BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW received its North American premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.