THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – TO SEE
Water everywhere, humidity, perspiration, wetness oozing like pus. In tropical, there is no other atmosphere than that. This heavy and sticky air spread by the liquid, amniotic and marshy matter. The mother’s womb, the abysses of the unconscious: these places towards which Edouard Salier’s film undertakes to plunge us draw inhospitable, tormented, swollen reliefs. A grainy, thick material that we owe in large part to the 16 mm film which the director has made very judicious use here.
The first images do not deceive, which immerse us in an aquatic basin where weighted men, seated cross-legged, hold their breath. It’s who will last the longest. Total silence, pale faces, distorted by the pressure. The scene is filmed in real time. It stretches, causes a feeling of oppression. Presented out of competition at the Gérardmer Fantastic Film Festival (Vosges) in January, tropical did not steal his place.
Anticipatory story rooted in social realism, bearing the imprint of the fantastic mixed with a touch of body horror, this film at the crossroads of genres sets a setting that is both familiar and strange that creates confusion, installs in discomfort. The idea being to engage the spectator in a physical and sensory experience of the transformation of a man into a monster. Which is reminiscent of John Merrick, the man-elephant in David Lynch’s film (Elephant Man1980).
Disturbing strength
We are somewhere in South America, at a contemporary time, undetermined year. Nearby, a high-level military school trains future astronauts responsible for carrying out missions lasting several years, for a space colonization program. Among these young people, the twins Tristan (Louis Peres), brilliant in all disciplines, and Lazaro (Pablo Cobo), at a significantly lower level but which his brother strives to make equal to his. Because they sealed a pact. The mission for which the competition for which they are preparing will last ten years. Neither of them will go alone. They must therefore succeed together.
However, an unforeseen event occurs, of a cosmic, supernatural order, which implodes the fusional relationship of the two brothers (so physically similar that they are confused), the family unit, the future towards which they projected themselves. One night when Tristan drags Lazaro to snorkel in the dark waters of a lake, a phenomenon appears, a kind of lightning, a giant alien which, for a few seconds, invades the sky and crosses the wave. Unlike Lazaro, released in time, Tristan is the victim of a toxic contamination that burned his body and half of his face. Severely disabled, the one that others now consider a monster, must give up his plans. The result for him is a long dilapidation that seems to have no other way out than to drag everyone down. Especially his brother who can’t bring himself to mourn half of himself.
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