Decaying Nature

Synopsis

Under the suffocating sun of an exclusive nudist seaside resort, frigid ANTONIA (32), eight months pregnant, succumbs to a strange affliction that begins with nausea and an instinctive craving that may be linked to her pregnancy. When she realises that her friend is on her period, Antonia’s instinct turns into obsession. While their friends sink into a lethargy of nudity and drugs, Antonia stalks the vulnerability of their bodies, until she realises she cannot harm her friends. Her thirst then drives her into the shadows of the beach, where a treasure hunter rumbles around the beach every night. There, under the cold moonlight, she finds the chance to sate herself on a stranger’s exposed flesh, completing her first hunt with impunity.

Letter of Intent

After Fiebre Austral, a short film about body horror, magic, and rural life, and Bloques Erráticos, my first feature film about ghosts and archives in Patagonia, I want to delve deeper into genre cinema by using the tools of vampire cinema to dissect political and bodily tensions. Moving to San Sebastián for the EQZE Master’s program transformed the project: filming it in the Basque Country brought it into dialogue with the region’s architecture and social stratification. I’m interested in portraying the impunity of the wealthy: a young woman from the upper class who kills, drinks blood, and returns to her friends as if nothing had happened, backed by a social system. Antonia is the vessel of a privilege that feeds off others, and her body reflects this: the fetus feeds on her blood to grow. It is also a film about the body, decomposition, and secret desires.

Director

Thomas Woodroffe is a Chilean filmmaker whose work focuses on the esoteric and technology. He works as a director, screenwriter, director of photography, and post-production editor. He directed the short film Fiebre Austral (2019—Venice, TIFF, Special Mention at San Sebastián) and served as director of photography for El verano del león eléctrico (2018—first prize at Cinéfondation). His first feature film, Bloques Erráticos, premiered in 2026 in the New Directors section of the San Sebastián Film Festival.