Two university students from Kyoto decide to swap partners and spend the night in an isolated motel. However, one of the couples is attacked, leaving the man unconscious and the woman violated. Desperate for answers, they search for the attackers and come across a cult that promotes sexual freedom.

The most provocative entry in Akio Jissôji’s “Buddhist Trilogy,” this experimental masterwork is a bracing examination of religious fanaticism. Stylistically radical and erotically charged, Mandala is a deeply philosophical, taboo-busting inquiry into man’s primal capacity for good and evil.