El beso de la mujer araña by Manuel Puig

Valentin encourages Molina to have self-respect and opens him up to political commitment. He weaves the characters into a narrative meant to comfort Valentin and distract him from the harsh realities of political imprisonment and separation from his lover, Marta. Molina passes the time by recounting memories from one of his favorite films, a wartime romantic thriller that is also a Nazi propaganda film.

The film centres on a dialogue between two very different individuals who share a prison cell in Brazil during the Brazilian military dictatorship: Valentin Arregui, who is imprisoned (and has been tortured) due to his activities on behalf of a leftist revolutionary group, and Luis Molina, an effeminate homosexual in prison for 'corrupting an underage youth.'

Released in the United States on July 26, 1985, it received widespread critical acclaim Hurt won the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor, and the film received a further three Oscar nominations: for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Independently produced by David Weisman and filmed in São Paulo between October 1983 and March 1984, the film premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, where Hurt won the Best Actor award and Babenco was nominated for the Palme d'Or.

The story utilizes metafictional and film-within-a-film elements, as the latter regales the former with retellings of an old movie, whose themes mirror those of the characters. Set in Brazilian prison during the military dictatorship, the film centres on a dialogue between two very different cellmates, a hardened leftist revolutionary (Julia) and an apolitical, effeminate homosexual (Hurt). It is directed by Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco from a screenplay by Leonard Schrader, and stars William Hurt, Raul Julia, and Sônia Braga. Kiss of the Spider Woman ( Portuguese: O Beijo da Mulher Aranha) is a 1985 drama film, based on the 1976 novel of the same title by Argentine writer Manuel Puig.

El beso de la mujer araña by Manuel Puig