The film was said to be considered as an "allegory that condenses and emblematizes not only themes from Ruiz's work as a whole, but also key dimensions of his filmmaking practice" (Goddard 2).Goddard, Michael. "Impossible Cartographies: The Cinema of Raúl Ruiz". London: Wallflower, 2013. Print. Zig-Zag shows the form of filmography that really describes Ruiz's style, as the film presents this idea how a film can be a type of impossible cartography that is always changing and never secured.Goddard, Michael. "Impossible Cartographies: The Cinema of Raúl Ruiz". London: Wallflower, 2013. Print. The film presents Ruiz's style when it plays with the ability to critique representation within film as the character H takes us through many representations of territory and representations of territories through maps as Ruiz uses cinema, dreams, and cartographic explorations (Goddard 4). Representation to Ruiz is a means to expose the invisible and to put forward to an audience things which cannot be seen "using the capacity of images", because" they are too abstract or their nature is divine" so that they may be understood truthfully to reveal or render evident/certain realities which cannot be shown" (Ruiz 36).Ruiz, RauÌl. Poetics of Cinema. Paris: Editions Dis Voir, 1995. Print. When the film uses these images of maps as representations of territories, Ruiz is able to challenge the logic of cartographers and how their representation may not be fully true, as cities may always undergo change and cities may be destroyed, or even both. In the film, it presents this paradox between territory and the image of territory showing us how territories and their maps are concrete yet abstract at the same time since a territory is physical and an image of the territory (map) is abstract or created, revealing the uncertainty of representation.Ruiz, RauÌl, and Bruno Cuneo. Ruiz: Entrevistas Escogidas, FilmografiÌa Comentada. Santiago (Chile): Ediciones Universidad Diego Portales, 2013. Print.
