fever dream samanta schweblin sparknotes

Their dialogue punctuates the film’s roiling action as they try to trace recent events to a point that would explain the unfurling disaster. Using the horror trope of the devil child, and playing upon Vodanovich’s inscrutable performance, Llosa leaves the question of David’s intentions open-ended for much of the film.Īt the same time, he’s Amanda’s guide through the calamity that ultimately grips her. For his part, David tries to steer Amanda away from his mother’s version of events and, eventually, from Carola herself. Carola sees a monster to be feared, eventually provoking Amanda to berate her for not trusting her own son. A glimpse of 12-year-old David (Emilio Vodanovich), alone and watchful in a rowboat at the river’s shore, is the second.ĭavid is the son of the other mother at the center of the story, Carola (Dolores Fonzi), whose earthy sensuality and openness contrast vividly with Amanda’s quiet composure. Through tears Carola reveals that David “doesn’t belong to me anymore.” Seeing a lone, unloved creature, Amanda becomes a kind of surrogate parent to David. A guard dog’s pounding leap at her car window is the first signal that this won’t be an ordinary getaway. Her husband, Marco (Guillermo Pfening), will join them when he can get away from work.

“I spend half my time calculating that distance,” says Amanda (María Valverde), a delicate, ethereal beauty who has brought her sweet-faced daughter, Nina (Guillermina Sorribes), about 6, from Spain to a place Amanda’s Argentine father described to her as a kind of paradise. The book’s original Spanish title refers to the “rescue distance” required, according to one of those mothers, to keep her child safe. In Fever Dream, a story of two parallel mothers whose lives become entwined, the breezes are laced with menace as one family’s holiday escape to an idyllic spot turns into an unfathomable nightmare. Screenwriters: Claudia Llosa, Samanta Schweblin Cast: María Valverde, Dolores Fonzi, Emilio Vodanovich, Germán Palacios, Guillermo Pfening

Fever dream samanta schweblin sparknotes