The Benefactress: An Exposure of Cinematic Freedom – 2025

The Benefactress is an experimental art film by director Guerrilla Metropolitana. I haven’t previously seen any of his films, which consists mostly of shorts apart from Dariuss, a feature film for which he gained a underground following. I have read up a bit though and it seems like the nature of his style is highly personalized. 

Which means that I was a bit scared to see this one since its supposed to be really intense and truly extreme. Scared is the wrong word of course, maybe more like anxious. I had been explicitly warned about it. So, naturally I was excited. Were I about to see something that would truly shock me? I haven’t felt that feeling in quite a while, years actually, even though it feels like a lifetime ago.

I must emphasize that it is not a horror flick even though it’s so extreme. It’s described as experimental art. And I agree, this is not horror. It might be scary at times if you’d admit to interpreting the surface of the plot. It’s about, at least in my mind, the urging to do what makes you happy or what makes you feel good. In the case of  The Benefactress, that takes pretty extreme measures as it revolves back to the more basic instinct we humans have – sex! 

But not just in any form. This is clearly about what you could do if no one was there to stop you. If there were true anarchy in the world and you could just satisfy yourself without needing to care about other people as well. You could, in fact, kidnap and rape whomever you wanted and get away with it just to satisfy your own desires. I’m not saying that this is what The Benefactress is all about but if you just scratch the surface it might look that way. Oh, and the Benefactress is a rich lady who finances the movie on the condition that she can attend via video link. If that is true or fiction is not made exactly clear. And I think that is beautiful. It erases the line between fact and fiction even more.

The whole thing starts off in black and white, beautifully shot! The opening scene, just after the very beginning, the initiating disclaimer which indeed makes you wonder what it really is you’re about to see, is magical. It’s a solo shot on the main character, Juicy X, explaining who she is, and who Guerrilla Metropolitana is. How they got together and why they decided to work on this project together. 

It’s rather intense and at first I didn’t notice it, or understand why I was so sucked in by this intro. But after a while I realized that the shot had zoomed in on Juicy X extremely slowly and making me more and more intrigued. Oh, and I noticed right away that the chair she’s sitting on bears the resemblance of the female reproduction organs. I thought it was kind of like those Rorschach pictures, that it was my interpretation, but I later realized that it was the actual intent to make it look like a vulva. 

So far, there’s some explicit descriptions of what has been done in earlier Guerrilla Metropolitana shorts. Truly shocking stuff. I have no idea if it’s true or not or if we’re just supposed to think that it is. And the whole film kind of balances on the edge where you can’t say for sure what’s really happening in reality and what is acted. 

There is also a duality of styles. There is, on one hand, the beautiful static black and white footage and then there are the handheld camera, shaky and filmed in color. So there’s a true contrast between the more “ecstatic” sequences and the more self-reflecting ones. I really like that approach. It enhances the imagery.

I realize that the arthouse rape scenes are not real, they may be performed though. But there’s obviously consent. I don’t think the lesbian aspect looks that realistic, not that I have ever witnessed what the victim goes through in real life, but I have seen some really disturbing imagery in my day. The hetrosexual parts is made for real though. It’s not erotic, it just is. It happens and it’s portrayed in a way that doesn’t sensationalize it. 

I have seen pornographic rape scenes meant for arousal and I can definitely say, that this is not meant for arousal. But it’s neither disgusting nor beautiful either. It just seems like Guerrilla Metropolitana wants to set us in a certain mood. There are meta shots to let us know how Juicy X’s reactions to the forced sex make her feel though. At least that’s my interpretation of it. 

I’m pretty bothered by the beeps and constant clicking of a camera taking snapshots. And there are subliminal messages flashing on the screen from time to time. I think the point is to make our subconscious react in a certain way. I tried to actually read what it said at each occasion at first but I soon gave up. It’s literally, if you blink you’ll miss it and the texts are only visible for a couple of frames. I think they should have been readable for the conscious mind as well, but I guess that would’ve taken something away from the intent.

It’s violent and it’s depraved, there are all kinds of sexual perversions imaginable. Well, not all maybe, but there are indeed some really disturbed aspects of it. Some are pretty easy to comprehend, while others are more implied. In either case I can assure you that you have never seen a movie like this before, I certainly haven’t and I’ve seen some really f*cked up shit in my day.

That brings us the rating. I usually rate the movies I see or the music I hear on a rating system from 0,5-5, essentially a ten step rating system. I take all things into consideration and maybe I evaluate my experience as a bit more heavy than technical aspects, acting and so forth. That is, in normal cases. Here, I’m not really sure what I should think. On one hand, I love the strange, extreme nature of the film, even though it’s kind of pornographic at times. But it’s not pornographic in the usual sense of the word. There is imagery of genitalia and sexual acts throughout the whole movie, more or less.

But there are no real close-ups of penetration and stuff like that. There’s a lot going on and it is very strong. It’s certainly not everybody’s cup of tea but despite its disturbing imagery, it’s made in such a way that the most horrific parts are actually off camera or in the mind of the viewer. I love it and I hate it at the same time so I think I need to take the easy way out and not rate The Benefactress at all. I let my words speak for me instead.

The Benefactress is distributed globally by Blood Pact Films.