Tezuka's Barbara

An author with writer’s block becomes obsessed by a mysterious Barbara in an erotic, twisted and somewhat bizarre love story based on a classic manga novel from 1974.

Pay close attention: Directed by Makoto Tezuka, this film is a cinematic version of Barbara, a manga book by the director’s father Osamu Tezuka, who has been called both “Japan’s Walt Disney” and “the godfather of manga.” His Barbara was in turn a reworking of Offenbach’s opera “The Tales of Hoffmann.” In the film, a cult author is afflicted with writer’s block and falls in love with the whisky-drinking Barbara. More and more he abandons his old life and is pulled into a circle where Barbara’s eccentric mother plagues people with her voodoo dolls. Makoto Tezuka has convincingly succeeded as transferring the graphic expressions of manga to the visual format of film.

• Freddy Olsson