Rob (Will Maiden) and Bethany (Charli XCX) are on holiday in Warsaw, and he carries an engagement ring in his pocket. Doubts soon begin to trouble her, as caring and devoted can also mean dull. The impulse is to run away, to chase after Nel (Lena Gorá), an old Polish friend she had lost touch with and with whom she shares an intense chemistry, to the point that both feel that whenever they are together, a volcano erupts.
The IndieDate screening on Saturday, 2 May is hosted by Diogo Faro, followed by a post-screening Q&A to break the ice and spark new connections – powered by a quiz you can answer here. Then it’s on to the iconic Message Party at Purex: messages of friendship or flirtation, your call.
Nothing is more disruptive than a volcanic eruption: its dramatic intrusion into an apparently quiet daily life is, by nature, haunting. As an unpredictable manifestation, it readily lends itself to metaphorical readings, particularly in the realm of romantic passion.
In Erupcja, however, this axis is subtly inverted. Rather than positioning the volcano as the driving force of the narrative, Pete Ohs shifts the focus towards the ways in which affective relationships, fragile and uncertain, may themselves operate as triggering forces. The premise evokes the so-called butterfly effect, associated with Chaos Theory: the idea that an infinitesimal gesture, such as the beating of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world, may reverberate and produce unforeseen consequences elsewhere. In Erupcja, it is precisely these minor disturbances that gradually reconfigure the outcome. This movement is mediated by a discreet yet vital narrator, whose dry humour and restrained irony prove central to the film’s construction of ambiguity. Between order and unpredictability, the work situates itself within a zone of tension where chance begins to take shape.
Susana Santos Rodrigues
