Synopsis/Details
DIMITRI, 40, lies motionless on a worn sofa, staring at the ceiling. Although he squirms occasionally, he does not move his eyes from the ceiling or his body from the sofa. The room around him is quiet, suspended in time — until WENDA (35), his wife, materializes out of mist.
At first, their interaction feels domestic, even banal. Wenda describes tidying the kitchen, but her language grows strange — she recounts “contorting” herself, stretching and twisting unnaturally. As she and Dimitri physically entangle and disentangle in awkward, impossible positions, the physical distortions mirror something deeper: warped relationships, strained by inertia, resentment, and emotional paralysis.
Wenda disappears as abruptly as she arrived.
Soon after, SANDY (29) appears — agitated, accusatory, and physically uncomfortable in his body. Their exchange is tense, laced with passive aggression and cryptic references. The broken doorbell, smashed by Dimitri’s father for unknown “principles,” hints at a household governed by opaque rules and suppressed conflicts.
Sandy reappears alongside ADA (25) his wife, who is seductive and accusatory. Their relationship is volatile — oscillating between intimacy and hostility. As they scramble over Dimitri, their bodies knot and twist, fragments of truth emerge: infidelity, jealousy, and long-simmering resentment.
Revelation: Ada’s mother is dead. The circumstances are grotesque and ambiguous: electrocution in a bathtub, possibly suicide. Sandy’s macabre fascination with her death, including a secret photograph of her crispy remains, exposes his latent cruelty. Ada destroys the photo, triggering a violent physical reaction in Sandy, whose body locks into a permanent contortion.
Throughout, Wenda’s disembodied voice comments like a distant.
The fragments begin to align. Dimitri recalls witnessing Sandy and Wenda together — an affair. The film builds toward a haunting suggestion: all of these people may be dead.
In the final movement, reality collapses completely. One by one, the figures vanish, leaving Dimitri alone.
Wenda returns for the final revelation: Dimitri’s mother is dead from a broken heart, having discovered the bodies. The implication is devastating — Dimitri killed them all and tried to kill himself.
Dimitri drifts into a long, poetic monologue. He recalls childhood memories — bleak seaside landscapes, emotional isolation, a rigid father, a strong but unaffectionate mother. These memories are fragmented, dreamlike, and tinged with quiet dread. His imagination once reshaped the world; now it traps him within it. The room dissolves into these memories — empty beaches, lonely bus rides, cold winds.
Finally, Dimitri dies on the sofa, as still as he has been throughout.
Contortions explores emotional paralysis, guilt, and the human tendency to distort reality. The physical contortions of the characters reflect psychological entanglement — love twisted into resentment, desire into shame, memory into delusion.
The film relies on stark lighting contrasts: Dimitri is always grounded in a dim, static frame, while the apparitions appear luminous and fluid. Transitions are seamless and disorienting — characters appear and vanish without warning.
