| The Territory | |
| Director: | Raúl Ruiz |
| Producer: | Paulo Branco Roger Corman |
| Starring: | Isabelle Weingarten Rebecca Pauly Geoffrey Carey Jeffrey Kime Paul Getty Jr. |
| Music: | Jorge Arriagada |
| Cinematography: | Henri Alekan Acácio de Almeida |
| Editing: | Claudio Martinez Valeria Sarmiento |
| Runtime: | 100 minutes |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Language: | English French |
The Territory (pt|'''O Território''') is a 1981 Portuguese philosophical horror film directed by Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz about two American families who resort to cannibalism shortly after getting lost on a camping trip in the South of France. The film, about the animalistic nature of humans when they disregard their "civilized" instincts, obliquely addresses themes of "exile and crossing boundaries: of language, nation and morality".[1]
The circumstances in which the film was produced, and the extent of Corman's involvement, are somewhat mysterious, co-writer Adair claiming that the film was made under "hair-raising conditions" in Sintra. The production's budgetary difficulties inspired New German Cinema director Wim Wenders to make the Golden Lion-winning The State of Things (1982) with much of the same cast and crew.[2]
Stephen Holden from The New York Times called it "an odd little art film that has the feel of a European version of an episode of The Twilight Zone."[1] Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews awarded the film a grade B+, calling it "Deliciously subversive".[3]