Alejandro Jodorowsky's
El Topo
helped inaugurate the midnight movie phenomenon. Its success spawned
The Holy Mountain
, through interventions by John Lennon and Allen Klein. After a scandalous release and a 16-month midnight career,
was relegated to the underground world of fan bootlegs for over thirty years until its limited restored release in 2007. This short study reveals how
, a poetic, hilarious, and anarchist cult film by an international auteur, anchored in post-1968 critiques, is – at the same time – an archaeological capsule of the counterculture movement, a timely subversion of mystical tenets, and one of the most mysterious films in the history of world cinema.