Venezuela's 'eternal' tensions in new thriller

Jorge Thielen Armand's surrealist thriller, "Death Has No Master," unpacks generational conflicts over property and legacy in Venezuela. Asia Argento stars as Caro, an Italian-Venezuelan woman returning to her inherited plantation, where she confronts the Afro-Venezuelan caretakers, particularly Sonia, who are staking their own claim. The film draws parallels between personal histories and the "eternal" tensions of ownership and colonialism that continue to impact the nation.

Armand, whose previous film "La Soledad" also explored Venezuelan struggles, states the current political climate, including recent US involvement, amplifies the film's themes of collective darkness and betrayal. Inspired partly by a recurring nightmare of returning to a decaying past, Armand explores the psychological impact of confronting what has been left behind. The film is noted for its dream-like state, collapsing time and reflecting the colonial past within the present.

Argento described her immersive and fear-inducing process playing Caro, a character grappling with inherited trauma and a sense of entitlement. She noted thematic resonances with her own childhood and family legacy, particularly in relation to her renowned filmmaker parents, Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi, acknowledging the film's stylistic echoes of 70s Italian psychological thrillers. Armand aimed to present a complex conflict where no character is purely a victim, highlighting legal, moral, and historical claims over land that is ultimately controlled by force.