Captive – 1986 | 98 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Paul Mayersberg’s evocative debut feature is a Stockholm Syndrome thriller concerning a young heiress kidnapped by a small group of young, rich, amateur anarchists and her wealthy father held to ransom. Mayerberg has a chequered cinema career, having scripted the accomplished The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and Croupier (1998), he has also written/directed clunkers including Nightfall (1988). Here he creates a richly allusive fairy-tale that is a teasingly multi-layered variation on the Patti Hearst story as it follows a kidnapped heiress who embarks on a voyage of self-discovery whilst in captivity.

Wealthy heiress Rowena (Irina Brook) lives a lonely existence in a secluded French castle along with her widowed tycoon father Gregory Le Vay (Oliver Reed). Rowena is kidnapped by small group of anarchists from equally privileged backgrounds and subjected to a mixture of drugs, sensory deprivation, brain-washing techniques and love until she comes to recognise the shallowness of her life. Gregory meets the kidnapper’s demands, but after weeks of conditioning Rowena has become a victim of the Stockholm Syndrome and rejects her former bourgeois values.

The quartet then move to England and become urban anarchists; gaining notoriety when they hold up an art gallery and fire blank rounds at the assembled visitors. Things begin to sour when Rowena falls pregnant to gang leader D (Xavier Deluc) and the suppressed jealousy of Byrony (Corinne Dacla) rises to the surface. The police eventually apprehend the gang and Rowena discovers she has escaped one captivity merely to fall into another.