16.05.24, 20:30, Rotting in the Sun (2023)

In Rotting in the Sun, director Sébastian Silva plays a parody of (or version of, we'll leave that open) himself. As a film director, he should be making a living in Mexico City, but instead he spends days on the sofa in his flat morosely snorting ketamine, looking himself up on Google and figuring out the easiest way to kill himself. To escape his pained existence, he visits a gay nudist beach, where the director also holds the record for most penises on one cinema screen ever. There, Silva meets influencer Jordan Firstman (also in a self-parodying role) and the two decide to make a project together. Then, however, Silva goes missing.

A cat-and-mouse game ensues, with the viewer knowing more than the film characters. For the latter are only concerned with themselves and their Instagram accounts. Rotting in the Sun, the most talked-about film at Sundance in 2023, is an inky black meta-comedy that depicts hedonistic gay culture in a wonderfully casual and natural way. A whodunnit that offers a highly original indictment of an extremely individualised society, as well as leaving navel-gazing artists in their bare buttocks.