Malayalam director Shaji Karun, heralded by many as Satyajit Ray's cinematic heir, and Renato Berta, cinematographer for Daniel Schmids' Kabuki-inspired piece THE WRITTEN FACE, join together for THE LAST DANCE, a lushly-textured examination of the links between art, myth and reality told through the Keralan theater form of Kathakalini, a wordless combination of pantomime, dance and music.

Kunhikuttan, once a poor servant woman's son but now a distinguished Kathakali performer, meets Subhadra, a wealthy society woman, and the hope of spiritual love begins to blossom. She is in love, not with him, however, but with the character he plays, one who fathers a son with a woman named..."Subhadra." Weaving Kunhikuttan's performance as a powerful mythic lover and father, with his realities as a fatherless son, a father deprived of a son, and a failed lover, the film fashions a "virtual" love story that can only be resolved, fittingly enough, onstage.

With astonishing performances by South Indian superstars Mohanlal and Suhasini (the wife of director Mani Ratnam), and luminous wide-screen photography capturing the beauty of the Keralan landscape, LAST DANCE's doubling of reality and illusion draws further power from its immersion in the history and visual splendor of Kathakali, and of the struggles and devotion of its performers
and practitioners.