- The film is about reincarnation and takes place in a purgatory where the dead still have human form and the world around them looks the same as the living world. However, the people living in this purgatory start to develop animal instincts. Gene, a retiree vacationing in Baja, is learning the instincts of a spider through his dreams and stumbles upon a woman who is destined to be reborn as a caterpillar/moth. The film explores a world where human and animal intertwine as one.—Ryan Harper
- Circulation takes place in a purgatory where the dead still have human form and the world around them looks the same as the living world, however something is definitely different. The people are becoming different, becoming something else, something other than human, something animal. Circulation explores a world where human and animal intertwine as one.
The story centers around two characters that meet in the desolate and sun soaked desert of Baja California. Ana is a beautiful Mexican woman who works at her familys restaurant. She lives in a small Mexican town and recently left her abusive husband. On her way to visit her new boyfriend at a beach side resort hotel, her jealous husband attempts a vicious kidnapping that results in a car accident that kills them both.
Ana crawls out of the wreckage and in the sweltering heat she walks down the highway towards the nearest town. Finally, a vehicle stops. Gene is an older American tourist vacationing in Baja. Hes retired and has rough way about him. He waves Ana into his RV, but they immediately encounter a communication barrier Ana doesnt speak English and Gene doesnt speak Spanish.
Ana is able to convey that she needs to get to the resort where she had planned to meet her boyfriend. Gene agrees to drive her. However, when they arrive it is not what Ana expected. The hotel is in ruins and it appears as if the beach is swallowing the entire structure. Ana walks through the dark hallways of the hotel looking for her boyfriend. She hears strange sounds, animal sounds. Every step she becomes more nervous and less hopeful. Then she sees someone run up the stairs and cautiously follows. The man ducks into a room. When Ana enters the room, she doesnt see him. Then a sound from the mattress in the corner, she walks over to investigate. From behind the mattress, the man lets out a very primitive growl, a bone-chilling growl, an animal like growl. This is Anas first experience of the Animalness of purgatory.
When Gene and Ana arrive at her parents house, Anas dead brother refuses to allow Ana to stay. Reluctantly, Gene takes her with him on his journey south to the end of the Baja peninsula. But always close behind is Anas husband ready to pounce on his prey.
Ana becomes aware of her own animalness as the story progresses. She has horrific nightmares of caterpillars and moths. Gene has nightmares of spiders. These dreams manifest itself in their waking lives in unusual actions and behaviors. Gene and Ana slowly learn the instincts that animals are naturally born with. They learn the instincts of the animals they are meant to become. Eventually, Ana loses all humanness and becomes reborn on earth as a caterpillar. Gene continues to drive through Mexico stocking his prey until he is ready to be reborn as a spider.
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