“For a true artist, difficulties become opportunities and clouds become solid present.” – Alejandro Jodorowsky

Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky, known as Alejandro Jodorowsky (born 7 February 1929) is a Chilean filmmaker, playwright, actor, author, comic book writer and spiritual guru. Best known for his avant-garde films, he has been “venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts” for his work which “is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation.” Jodorowsky experienced an unhappy and alienated childhood, and so immersed himself in reading and writing poetry.

SELECT WORKS
     – Fando y Lis (1967): A film that follows Fando (Sergio Klainer) and his paraplegic girlfriend Lis (Diana Mariscal) through a barren, post-apocalyptic wasteland in search of the mythical city of Tar, where legend has it all wishes come true. A film adaptation of a Fernando Arrabal play by the same name.
     – El Topo (The Mole) (1970): An allegorical, cult western movie and underground film characterized by bizarre characters and occurrences, use of maimed and dwarf performers, and heavy doses of Christian symbolism and Eastern philosophy. The film is about the eponymous character – a violent, black-clad gunfighter – and his quest for enlightenment.
     – The Holy Mountain (1973): A visually psychedelic story that follows the metaphysical thrust of Mount Analogue by Rene Daumal, such as the club to the Alchemist, the assembly of individuals with specific skills, the discovery of the mountain that unites Heaven and Earth, and symbolic challenges along the mountain ascent. Daumal died before finishing his allegorical novel, and Jodorowsky’s improvised ending provides a way of completing the Work (symbolic and otherwise.) Produced by bey The Beatles‘ manager, Allen Klein, after John Lennon and Yoko Ono put up production money.
     – Tusk / Poo Lorn L’Elephant (1980): About a young English girl and an Indian elephant who share a common destiny. Based on the novel, Poo Lorn L’Elephant, by Reginald Campbell.
     – Santa Sangre (1989): A 1989 Mexican-Italian surrealist film divided into a both a flashback and a flashforward and tells the story of a boy who grew up in a circus, and his life through both adolescence and early adulthood. Whilst still a child, he witnesses his mother Concha, who is devoted to an armless saint, have her own arms cut off by her enraged husband. The shock causes him to be institutionalized in a mental sanitorium, becoming his mother’s servant once he finally leaves as a man.

Jodorowsky has also written a series of science fiction comic books, most notably The Incal (1981-1989), Technopriests and Metabarons. Accompanying this, he has also written books and regularly lectures on his own spiritual system, which he calls “psychomagic” and “psychoshamanism” and which borrows from his interests in alchemy, the tarot, Zen Buddhism and shamanism. (WIKIPEDIA)

“What I am trying to do when I use symbols is to awaken in your unconscious some reaction. I am very conscious of what I am using because symbols can be very dangerous. When we use normal language we can defend ourselves because our society is a linguistic society, a semantic society. But when you start to speak, not with words, but only with images, the people cannot defend themselves.” – Alejandro Jodorowsky