Official selection
San Sebastián International Film Festival 2023
Trieste Ibero-Latin American Film Festival 2023
Festival do Rio 2023
Morelia International Film Festival 2023
Göteborg Film Festival 2024
Honors
Best Picture Award - Trieste Ibero-Latin American Film Festival 2023
Director
Lucía Puenzo
Executive Producer
Esteban Puenzo
Producer
Mark Johnson, Paula P. Manzanedo, Esteban Puenzo, Lucía Puenzo
Writer
Lucía Puenzo, Lorena Ventimiglia
Cast
Moro Anghileri, Mariana Di Girolamo, Osmar Nuñez, Germán Palacios, Guillermo Pfening
Cinematographer
Nicolás Puenzo
Sound Designer
Fernando Soldevila
Editor
Misael Bustos
contact
Historias Cinematográficas
“There is a compelling idea that something as random and arbitrary as a lightning bolt that chooses you and not the one you were two metres away kills a neuron groove. From there, if you survive, you no longer understand the synaptic paths you used to follow.” – Director Lucía Puenzo
In the sudden blink of an eye, young veterinarian Ada (Mariana Di Girolamo, Pablo Larrain’s EMA) finds her world scrambled when a bolt of lightning shoots through her body. Six weeks later, she awakens from a coma, immediately sensing that something—everything—is somehow different. For one, despite having had premature menopause for the past seven years, Ada experiences a period. This in addition to hallucinations, sensitivities to light and to certain sounds, and more. It becomes clear that her electrocution has caused mysterious physical and psychological mutations. Perhaps most troubling, Ada finds herself compulsively drawn to electrical currents. And the shocks that they tempt with. Now unable to relate to the people in her life, she connects with an underground support group comprised of strike survivors who no longer fit in anywhere, their bodies each baring Lichtenberg marks, the unmistakable scarring that traces pathways lightning took through a victim’s blood vessels. The group is led by a potentially dangerous doctor (Germán Palacios, EL RAPTO) whose unique insights lend him a special place of influence over them. A doorway into radical new explorations has opened.
A gripping, sensorial experience with a visceral emotional core, ELECTROPHILIA is the latest creation from Cannes-awarded Argentinian filmmaker and novelist Lucía Puenzo (THE FISH CHILD, XXY), scripted in collaboration with painter Lorena Ventimiglia, who originated the project after becoming fascinated with Lichtenberg scars. Reminiscent in ways of CRASH-era Cronenberg, it is a subversive and beautiful genre work, a different kind of self-discovery outsider tale and a new breed of dramatic thriller that demands to be seen and discussed. Incredible filmmaking through and through, further electrified by an extraordinary performance from Di Girolamo, who positively astonishes. – Mitch Davis
Showings
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