SYNOPSIS:

Opera café society glitters like the international cast of casablanca, with everyone a player on the stage of life – lovers, opportunists, performers -- all reflecting the concept of “carnival” of carnal, worldly man. On the other side, there are the humble, introspective, faithful, still sensitive to the meaning behind everyday events, and able to see the secret spiritual struggles that are acting behind the scenes. Also, there are those who have succumbed to the struggles and challenges of the impoverished urban existence – trying to survive – sometimes the victim, other times the victor. It is this environment that the protagonist, Frances Civviero finds himself thrust into – the collision of elegant society and ruthless urban purgatory. Like many well educated members of the elite - something that the opera life symbolizes, he’s too well versed in the school of reason. Unlike the Russian writer, Doestoevsky, who concludes that he would rather follow the truth of Christ rather than the conclusions of rationality, Francis is a well educated Jesuit who has all the background necessary for faith, but who lacks the conviction for its message. That is, until he is accosted by the reality of spiritual struggle – a struggle, that in a John Malkovich way (Being John Malkovich) begins to enter his physical reality as well. Like the character of Dante in Dante Alleghieri’s Divine Comedy, he begins to gain an introspective perspective, as he beings to shed his shallow, extroverted, stage self, with all it’s “existential damage” as he calls it. Formerly someone who must always be in control of his environment, he learns humility by losing that control through the series of strange events and visions. But through this dark night of the soul, accompanied by longings of the eternal (symbolized by recurrent visions of climbing Jacob’s ladder of the old testament), he becomes more human, more open to faith, and more open to love.