Having already staged a play (Faust 3.0) and an opera (The Damnation Of Faust), La Fura dels Baus troupe completes its three-part take on Goethe's masterpiece with its first film venture.
As debuts go, it's not only laudably ambitious in its photographic style and discordant score, but also refreshingly disrespectful of cinematic convention.
Yet its greatest strength lies in the performances of Miguel Angel Solá as a suicidal cancer specialist and Eduard Fernández as the terminal patient whose miraculous survival and ability to anticipate the surgeon's every wish enables him to exact his pitiless revenge.
More might have been made of Najwa Nimri's loyal assistant and some of the other female characters, as well as such themes as the myth of all-conquering science and the supposed sanctity of the human form. But there's enough visual innovation to keep you occupied.