Paradise Hills (4½ Stars)

A young woman called Uma wakes up on a beautiful island. She's told that she's been sent to the island by her parents to learn good manners and how to behave like a fine lady. If that were all that's needed she might have accepted her holiday away from home. Unfortunately, part of the "behaving like a fine lady" means marrying the rich man that her parents have picked for her. When she makes it clear that she loves someone else, she has to undergo daily brainwashing sessions to persuade her to change her mind.

The island is full of young women who've been sent for reconditioning. Most of them would do anything to escape. The island's employees are all men. They act like servants and treat the women like royalty, bowing before them, but Uma suspects that the adulation is fake. The women on the island are the real slaves. She's warned by another woman not to drink the milk with the evening meal, because it drugs the women and makes them sleep all night. When she remains awake she sees that the island's men are busy all night, pushing the women on trolleys to rooms where operations are carried out.

That sounds sinister in itself, but there are even bigger secrets. I can't say too much, for fear of giving away spoilers, but I'll just say one thing. Uma begins to suspect that nobody who visits the island ever returns home.

This is a film that will probably miss its target audience. It's a very ambitious science fiction thriller, but on the surface it doesn't look like science fiction. It looks like a period film with pretty girls living a fine life. You need to be an insider to know what to expect. As soon as I saw that the screenplay was written by Nacho Vigalondo I knew it would be a mind-bending science fiction story. As the film develops, with one plot twist following another, the audience's imagination is stretched ever further. Maybe it's stretched too far. At first I wanted to give "Paradise Hills" a five star rating, but I deducted half a star because it goes too far.

I can't think of any other film I can compare it with. It's something that has to be seen to be believed.