Nightsiren

Director Tereza Nvotová reckons with the reactionary habitus of a Slovakian mountain village in her feminist horror film. When the return of the legendary Šarlota shakes up the misogynistic power relations of her hometown, psychedelic outdoor sex and brute male violence take centre stage.
Šarlota returns to her Slovakian mountain village because of a promise of inheritance. After an incident that resulted in the death of her younger sister, she fled the village as a child. Her arrival arouses fear and mistrust among the inhabitants and rekindles superstitions that have never been extinguished. Only the outsider Mira (Eva Mores) takes care of her and together they shed light on a cruel village story.

Tereza Nvotová brings the folk horror subgenre, which is often set in past centuries, into the present day of Slovakian rural life. The witch motif and the mind-expanding substances from the forest that are consumed here are less sinister than the brutal patriarchy at work. In NIGHTSIREN, rural customs and traditions are exposed as age-old means of reproducing misogynistic power relations and the protagonists fighting against them become a threat to a village order based on violence

+++ Locarno 2022 - Golden Leopard for Best Film Concorso Cineasti del Presente +++