Carlos Sorin's inventive first feature is a satiric portrait of obsession, and of men who would be kings. A young director, David Vass, is determined to make a film on the life of an obscure Frenchman who declared himself King of Patagonia and Araucania in 1860. When his film project runs into financial difficulties, Vass refuses to "face reality," instead determinedly follows his vision-so single-mindedly that he doesn't see the cost to others. As he heads for Patagonia for location shooting, the obstacles to realizing his project mount. Gradually abandoned by cast and crew, the absurdity of his venture soon competes with that of his hero. As his vision becomes increasingly surreal, obeying a logic of his own creation, the parallels to authoritarian regimes becomes inescapable-but always within the context of a comedy of mythmaking in the grand scale of filmmaking. Kathy Geritz