It deals with my own blood, my inheritance': Asia Argento on historical trauma in Death Has No Master

"Asia Argento stars as an anxious foreigner in Venezuela. Her character, Caro, is on a harried mission to reclaim inherited property from the local caretakers who still reside there. That's the setup in a surrealist psychological thriller, in which Venezuelan-Canadian film-maker Jorge Thielen Armand unpacks personal history alongside deep-rooted and eternal tensions that still affect the country today."

"Armand is fielding questions surrounding the US incursion in Venezuela, which began with Trump sending warships to the area last August, ostensibly to fight drug trafficking, just as production began on Death Has No Master. In January, the US arrested Venezuela's authoritarian president Nicolas Maduro, whose government has been accused of political corruption and human rights violations, while seizing control of the country, and its oil industry, which many believe was the agenda all along."

"It's very worrisome, what's happening, says Armand, on a video call alongside Argento. I think that the movie can speak to the collective darkness that Venezuelans feel, and the betrayal of domestic and international systems. With Death Has No Master, Armand is returning to the same terrain he explored nearly a decade ago, in his feature debut La Soledad, a portrait of struggle and desperation in Venezuela during the country's economic collapse."

"Armand shot the earlier film, which blurs the boundaries between documentary and fiction, at the dilapidated mansion his family owned. One of its occupants, Jose, lived there with his wife, daughter and grandmother, who once worked as a maid to Armand's family before they abandoned the property. The film follows Jose's ordeal when the property his family is squatting in"

A surreal psychological thriller stars an anxious foreigner in Venezuela on a mission to reclaim inherited property from local caretakers who still live there. The story is shaped by personal history and by long-standing tensions that continue to affect the country. The film’s meaning is layered, connecting individual anxiety to collective darkness and perceived betrayal by domestic and international systems. The production timeline overlaps with escalating US involvement in Venezuela, including warships sent to the region to target drug trafficking. Subsequent events include the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro and claims that control of the country and its oil industry were the real objective. The director returns to themes from an earlier film about struggle during Venezuela’s economic collapse, shot in a family-owned, dilapidated mansion with occupants tied to the family’s past.

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