Simon of the Desert (Spanish: Simón del desierto) is a 1965 Mexican surrealist satirical comedy film directed by Luis Buñuel and starring Claudio Brook and Silvia Pinal.

It is loosely based on the life of the ascetic 5th-century Syrian saint Simeon Stylites, who lived for 39 years on top of a pillar.

[2][3] The ascetic Simón Stylites has spent six years, six weeks, and six days on a small platform atop a pillar in the middle of the Syrian desert.

Once atop his new pillar, Simón leads the crowd below in the Lord's Prayer, but a woman interrupts to ask him to help her husband, whose hands were cut off for stealing.

Simón becomes frustrated after Matías leaves, as he had managed to forget his body, but now he is hungry and thirsty and yearns to feel the earth and embrace his mother.

Simón refuses to defend himself, and Trifón swears he did not place the food in the bag, so the monks pray to the Holy Ghost to show them who is guilty.

She flatters him, and he is initially fooled, but he sees through the ruse when she says she is saddened by his excessive sacrifices and tells him to come down and experience earthly pleasures if he wants to get close to God.

Satan gets out of the coffin and transports Simón to a crowded nightclub in 1960s New York City with a live rock band on stage.

Alatriste and I went to Europe to seek Federico Fellini, who was delighted to film with Buñuel, but he suggested his wife Giulietta Masina as the star.

On the other hand, Bunuel's creativity is in such fine form that one can't help regretting the loss of those unshot extra minutes" and concluded that the film "makes for a startling, charming and healthily wicked little anecdote, with easily more sense to its hard theology than one could find in a whole tribe of biblical epics".

[10] According to musician A.C. Newman, the music video for his song The Laws Have Changed by The New Pornographers was “lifted wholesale”[11] from Simon of the Desert.