Closet Land



Closet Land is a 1991 film starring Madeleine Stowe as an author of children books, and Alan Rickman as a ruthless interrogator. The characters are never named, but Stowe's character is given a codename, AB234.

Stowe's character is detained by the totalitarian government of an unnamed country and accused of inserting secret, subversive political messages into her latest book, Closet Land. The book is about a girl who is put into the closet by her mother while the mother goes out. While there, the girl imagines the clothes in the closet to be her friends. When her mother is about to come home, 'The Friendly Rooster' will crow, and the girl will put the clothes back in their places.

Rickman's character, the interrogator, uses escalating mental and physical torture and elaborate lies to force the author to admit that the book really is propaganda aimed at children.

"Rickman: Never. Trust. Strangers. Didn't your mother ever tell you that?"
 * Abusive Parents: The main character of the Author's novel has one.
 * Black Bra and Panties: After knocking her out, the Interrogator puts the Author in Black Bra and Panties complete with clownish make-up and wakes her up to a blaring repetition of 'It has been estimated that [insert percentage] of all women who favour black underwear are closet whores'. He blames this on other officers, but later repeats the statistic.
 * Bound and Gagged: The Author was gagged, bound, and then molested before she was brought in front of the Interrogator.
 * Call Back: The second time the Interrogator takes off the Author's blindfold happens the same way as the first.
 * Cold-Blooded Torture: Pretty much the point of the movie. As the Author continues to resist, the Interrogator is driven to more and more severe interrogation methods, very much including this. He also tortures another   prisoner in the same room as the blindfolded Author.
 * Fingore:  He then does it to the Author later.
 * Genre Blindness: The Author at first accepts absolutely everything the Interrogator offers her until he gives her urine to drink. Even then, she believes  The Interrogator even calls her out on it:


 * Groin Attack: The Author does it to the Interrogator.
 * Mind Rape: Much of the action of the movie revolves around the Interrogator doing this to the Author (combined with torture) in order to get her to break:
 * The Interrogator discussing the torture he will inflict on the Author. Lampshaded when he says it's not the pain that will drive her crazy, but the suspense.
 * When she is allowed to sleep, he places a recorder beside her to play a tape over and over again to make her give in. She resists by repeating her own mantra and disallowing herself to sleep.
 * No Ending:
 * I think actually the "Yes I was the Abuser" thing was another torture-tactic. Maybe...?
 * Punch Clock Villain: Obviously, the Interrogator claims to be this--that he was once a professor and played the piano before "they" got to him.
 * Rape as Drama:
 * The Stool Pigeon: Prisoner XYZ claims to be a captured member of an anti-government cell and implicates the author. He later confesses to her that he's been so thoroughly broken that "they" use him to falsely implicate suspects.
 * The Voice: There are sometimes voices that whistle or cough echoing around the room.
 * Vomit Discretion Shot
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: The whole purpose of the Author's torture.