TRAUMA (2018)

Chile. Direction: Lucio A. Rojas. Production: Rodrigo Fernández, Sebastián Ballek, Lucio A. Rojas, Vicente de la Cruz / Border Motion Cinema, Too Much Films, SBH Films, Chris Reiben Studios. Screenplay: Lucio A. Rojas. Photography: Sebastián Ballek. Music: Ignacio Redard. Edition: Cristian Toledo, Lucio A. Rojas. Cast: Catalina Martín, Daniel Antivilo, Macarena Carrère, Ximena del Solar, Felipe Ríos. Running time: 106 min

LANGUAGE: Spanish

Before its screening at Mexico’s Morbido, Pablo Guisa, the festival director, spoke very clearly about this film by Chile’s Lucio A. Rojas: “Every year there are works so extreme and disturbing that we recommend you don’t watch them; this is one of those. Only give it a shot if you are mentally prepared to see high levels of torture, have a strong heart and good lining on your stomach”. At first it doesn’t seem to be too bad: four hikers are attacked in a house deep in the forest, standard stuff. The thing is that in its opening scene the film takes us back to the times of the Chilean dictatorship, making A Serbian Film (2010) look like a kids’ movie. The remainder of the footage is brutish, dirty and smells strongly of death. It’s doable though.