| Perfumed Nightmare | |
| Native Name: | Mababangong Bangungot |
| Director: | Kidlat Tahimik |
| Producer: | Kidlat Tahimik |
| Starring: | Kidlat Tahimik |
| Music: | Hanns Christian Müller |
| Cinematography: | Hartmut Lerch Kidlat Tahimik |
| Editing: | Kidlat Tahimik |
| Studio: | Kidlat Kulog Productions |
| Distributor: | Zoetrope Studios[1] (US) |
| Runtime: | 94 minutes[2] |
| Country: | Philippines |
| Language: | English Tagalog French German |
Perfumed Nightmare is a 1977 Filipino comedy-drama film starring, written and directed by Kidlat Tahimik, who also edited, co-shot, and produced it. It tells the story of a young Filipino jeepney driver from Barangay Balian, Laguna infatuated with the ideas of space travel and the West, who gradually becomes disillusioned after living in Paris. The film was well-received by critics upon release, even earning the International Critics Award (FIPRESCI) at the Berlin Film Festival.[3]
Perfumed Nightmare is the Filipino film that received the most votes in the British Film Institute's 2022 Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll (joint critics and directors' list), with Kidlat Tahimik being the second most voted Filipino director. With that, it is now also considered the greatest Filipino comedy film.
Kidlat, a jeepney driver in a village in the Philippines, dreams of becoming an astronaut and making it big in the United States. His dreams take him as far as Europe and to a series of events that will show him that his idealisation of what Western and European culture has to offer is far from real.[4]