"For all that is apparently illogical or esoteric — or both — in Rúiz's film, there is, lurking somewhere between the images and Jorge Arriagada's orchestral score, a coherent and completely overwhelming emotional feeling. Searching for a key to the film's ultimate meaning one can pick out symbols of a lost childhood, of adventure stories, of the crimes of fascism in Europe and Latin America, and the homicidal in sexuality. But, as in any film by Rúiz, these symbols are more like musical notes in a composition than they are a puzzle of implications." - Jon Auman, Screen Slate