Love Me Not

This titillating, stylised film version of the Biblical story of John the Baptist and Salomé largely takes place in an army camp in the desert, against the background of a contemporary war. Salomé (Ingrid García-Jonsson) is the daughter of the corrupt commander and his adulterous wife; the prophet is locked up in a cave because of his subversive predictions. Just as in Oscar Wilde's interpretation, Salomé is obsessed by the prisoner (and all the men in the camp by her). The film shows the universal absurdity of politics, violence and the whole gamut of human emotions behind them: lust, greed and pride. The beauty of the landscape and sensually filmed bodies contrast with the coarse cruelty of war and the shameless opportunism of the characters. The world has become a place where there’s no room for purity and truth. A stimulating mixture of mythology and modernity, dream and reality, humour and cynicism (International Film Festival Rotterdam)