Transatlantic Malaise
Director: Diego Andres
Venezuela, Switzerland, 2023, 12 min
Shooting Format:Digital
Festival Year:2024
Category:Experimental
Genres:Drama, Satire, Archive
Crew:Writer: Diego Andres Murillo. Producer: Diego Andres Murillo.
Email:diegosoce21@gmail.com
Synopsis
A Venezuelan government official is sent to Switzerland to work on a project, strangely descending into sickness as unsettling events unfold back home.
Trailer
About the director
Filmmaker. Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. He is the co-founder of Maldito Fantasma (Damn Phantom) a film production company spread between Caracas, Buenos Aires, and NYC. Always chasing cinema. Leaves his native country in the year 2016 and unexpectedly settles in New York City. While adapting to new territories, he continues DIY-self financed methods to make cinema, leading him to the completion of 5 short films and one upcoming feature film until this date. These films have screened and won awards at many important international film festivals such as Locarno Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival, Uruguay Int.Film Festival, Brussels Film Festival, Cinélatino Rencontres de Toulouse, Tacoma Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival, Beijing Int. Short Film Festival, Curtas Cinema Río de Janeiro, and many more.
Filmmaker's note
Using solely archive footage, the film portrays an intimate reinvention of a man caught up in one of the pivotal moments in Venezuelan history: the death of President Hugo Chávez, this time occurring in 2033. Its invisible and apparently apathetic protagonist embarks on a journey of uncertainty. Swiss landscapes, TV zapping, sexual encounters, censored tapes, and haunting images of his country all collide in this undisclosed fever voyage. Is the sickness of a body the malaise of a nation? All he wants is to return, to sleep in the violent sea where he was born.