“This is a strange and haunting film, as singular as Bed and Sofa. A parable of a man caught in the machinery of terror, The Ghost That Never Returns is set in a fictitious Latin American state, where a powerful oil company exploits its workers and imprisons those who show signs of revolutionary consciousness. One of the imprisoned revolutionaries is offered one day of freedom to visit his family: the offer is a trick, calculated to insure the prisoner's death. However, the trick backfires and the worker returns to lead an armed revolt against the oppressors. In contrast to Bed and Sofa, the film is highly stylized and filled with cinematic experiments. The atmosphere of captivity and danger is brilliantly expressed through the use of Constructivist sets and geometric compositions. Psychological states are conveyed through subtle uses of slow motion, frozen action and prolonged takes.”
Tom Luddy, Yvette Biro