Erupcja\u00a0(2025)
Directed by Pete Ohs
Written by Jeremy O. Harris, Pete Ohs, Charli XCX, Lena G\u00f3ra, & Will Madden
1-2 Special<\/p>\n
In March, I attended the US premiere of director Pete Ohs and writer Jeremy O. Harris\u2019s Erupcja at SXSW. It stars Charli XCX as the wayward heroine Bethany, who gets stranded in Warsaw, Poland with her smitten boyfriend Rob (Will Madden) as a volcano is about to erupt.<\/p>\n
From there, what begins as a romantic getaway unravels as Bethany gets swept back into the whirlpool of her dear local friend Nel (Lena G\u00f3ra). Together, Bethany and Nel ditch Rob and venture across the city, sometimes with exciting new companions like Claude (Harris), all while reminiscing over shared memories as sapphic tensions simmer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like the balconies and the color blocks in the film,\u201d I told Ohs over drinks on the night of the premiere in Austin. The truth was, at that time, I was orbiting the film\u2014drawn in by its mood, rhythms, and images, yet not fully grasping it.<\/p>\n
A month later, I returned to those nebulous feelings and finally had a proper conversation with the director. Ohs opened up about his process, rooted in intuition, presence, and a willingness to follow coincidence wherever it leads. Harris, sharp and electric, joined in as well, infusing the interview with the wit and prose that characterize the film. Having them answer my questions felt like an enigma resolving into something inevitable.<\/p>\n
The cast and crew made the film at the onset of \u201cBrat Summer\u201d in 2024. What became clear to me is that it never aimed for the kind of \u201ccool\u201d apathy some audiences might expect or even want. Like Charli\u2019s dynamite record Brat, steeped in vulnerability, Erupcja contains multitudes: insecurity, longing, identity, and ultimately, choice.<\/p>\n
Hurt isn\u2019t the point here; it\u2019s the byproduct of the characters doing what they must. Above all, the film is about human connection on and off screen\u2014about how we find one another, maybe lose one another, and keep going no matter what.<\/p>\n
Weiting Liu (Rail): Let\u2019s start with your first experiences of Warsaw. The film was my first encounter with the city. I grew up in Chengdu, China, which also has vibrant art and party scenes. I\u2019m pleasantly surprised by how similar the two cities seem, especially in terms of lifestyle and architecture.<\/p>\n
Jeremy O. Harris: I\u2019ve heard Chengdu is a magical city. I\u2019d love to go there someday.<\/p>\n
Even before visiting Warsaw for the first time, I always knew it had a great theater scene. Pete had been living there and invited me to go. It felt like the perfect excuse to see some theater, explore the city, and on top of that, make a fun film.<\/p>\n
Pete Ohs: During my first time in Poland I met a Polish woman with a Before Sunrise experience; I extended my trip for her. The relationship led me to eventually move to Warsaw and try to become European. I also quickly fell in love with the city itself, so I brought my collaborators there to make this film.<\/p>\n
Rail: Watching the night sequence where Bethany and Nel reunite and go out, floating through highway bridges and diving into cave-like clubs in Warsaw, I had this d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu of how I used to party in Chengdu when I was a teenager. Did you intend to evoke this kind of visceral reaction?<\/p>\n
Ohs: We were collaborating intuitively, staying present in the moment, while also exploring memory and projection. Bethany and Nel had an explosive experience that shaped the next decade of their lives. They\u2019re chasing that feeling they had at sixteen\u2014not unlike what you had at that age.<\/p>\n
This is something we were also chasing while making the film. So it makes sense that an audience member might feel that same sense of nostalgia.<\/p>\n
Rail: Another standout set piece is Bethany\u2019s monologue at the apartment, which felt theatrical, like something out of a play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erupcja\u00a0(2025)Directed by Pete OhsWritten by Jeremy O. Harris, Pete Ohs, Charli XCX, Lena G\u00f3ra, & Will Madden1-2 Special…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1149,3458,3457,3459,3456,2878,98,3461,3462,100,99,3455,17,1117,3465,749,2538,9,3463,24,63,3460,3464,905],"class_list":["post-254906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-art","tag-art-books","tag-art-critic","tag-art-reviews","tag-artists","tag-books","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-art","tag-brooklyn-culture","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-contemporary-art","tag-culture","tag-dance","tag-fiction","tag-film","tag-music","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-art-scene","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-phong-bui","tag-poetry","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}