Austral Fever

Thomas Woodroffe

IndieLisboa 2020 •

Chile, Fiction, 2019, 21′

What’s the gap between pleasure and pain? What are the body’s limits in terms of sensitivity? Inspired by the violent, erotic and seductive images of the Chilean painter Carmen Silva, aunt of the director, this is a story of a wound that produces pleasure.

A young man has an accident. His friend helps. His friend’s mother welcomes him. The wound that is born is hot and a perfect attraction to the abyss. It is in this context that the Chilean Woodroffe (whose English name contrasts with his origins), takes advantage of a situation that is never common. The family atmosphere has something “off-place”, and the house, apparently tidy, is about to explode in contained energy. Woodroffe risks being the next Chilean “case” after Dominga Sotomayor. (Miguel Valverde)