Though known for creating arresting images culled from a dreamy remembrance of movies from the late-silent/early-sound period of the late '20s/early '30s, director Guy Maddin draws off his own personal stock of Freudian symbolism as much as film history. Cowards Bend the Knee primarily concerns issues of masculinity -- the neurotic nightmare surrounding "Guy Maddin" (Darcy Fehr) attempting to live up to his notions of what it means to be a man. It takes place in the director's native Winnipeg, primarily at the Winnipeg Arena. Maddin was apparently born there, he spent a lot of time there as his dad worked as treasurer for the Canadian National Hockey Team (when the Maroons were the home team), and Maddin once wrote, "In the Winnipeg Arena, my inner and outer landscapes were one and the same thing." The stadium, with a wax museum of famous players located above the rink, is depicted as a combination Eden/Valhalla of manhood. It's no surprise that sex, as befits the film's origins in peep-show segments, plays a prominent role, from the lust-driven blunders Maddin makes to appease Meta (Melissa Dionisio) to the slapstick homoeroticism of the Maroons' locker room. The drama, while clearly tapping into personal hang-ups, is operatic enough not to become maddeningly obtuse and is bolstered by Maddin's highly original sense of humor that makes the film equally comic and tragic. The imagery is amazing, the overall effect brilliantly done, and the story accessible enough given its experimental leanings.