Mind-Benders
Reality, Identity, and the Art of Narrative Disruption
This four-session series explored the sub-genre of mind-bending cinema—films that twist perception, fracture narrative logic, and invite viewers to question what they think they know. These are works that reward discussion and rewatching, revealing new layers each time. Across the series, participants compared interpretations, traced hidden structures, and examined how filmmakers use ambiguity, repetition, and subjective perspective to unsettle and provoke.
The discussions drew from a range of influential titles, including:
• Upstream Color (2013, dir. Shane Carruth)
• Enemy (2013, dir. Denis Villeneuve)
• Prisoners (2013, dir. Denis Villeneuve)
• The Prestige (2006, dir. Christopher Nolan)
• Inception (2010, dir. Christopher Nolan)
• Coherence (2013, dir. James Ward Byrkit)
• Triangle (2009, dir. Christopher Smith)
• Primer (2004, dir. Shane Carruth)
• Timecrimes (2007, dir. Nacho Vigalondo)
• Ex Machina (2014, dir. Alex Garland)
Across these sessions, the group focused on how these films manipulate time, memory, identity, and narrative perspective. Whether through looping structures, unreliable protagonists, or philosophical puzzles, each film offered a different route into understanding the boundaries of cinematic storytelling—and how filmmakers use confusion, mystery, and revelation to engage the viewer’s imagination.