DEATH HAS NO MASTER

After the death of her father, Caro travels from Italy to Venezuela to sell her childhood home, an aging estate with a cacao plantation. Upon arriving at the mansion, she discovers it is occupied by Sonia, a former employee, and her young son, Maiko. Sympathetic to their situation, Caro initially agrees to share the house, moving into her parents' old bedroom while Sonia remains in the main living quarters. She also finds out that Sonia has been illegally subletting rooms to other tenants.

When Caro explains that she intends to sell the property and tries to politely ask everyone to leave, Sonia refuses, insisting she has just as much right to remain there as Caro does. Seeking help, Caro tries to file a complaint at the local police station against the squatters, only to be warned against escalating the conflict. In the close-knit community, Sonia and her son are well known, and the authorities have little interest in intervening.

As the standoff intensifies, Caro exhausts her options and turns to her father's former lawyer, hoping he can resolve the situation. But what begins as an attempt to intimidate the occupants quickly spirals into violence, drawing Caro into the country's deep-rooted legacy of dispossession and brutality—one that refuses to remain buried.

In Jorge Thielen Armand’s pressure-cooker thriller, Asia Argento plays an expat who returns to the country she fled as a child following her father’s death, only to find herself at odds with the locals, their customs, and their way of life. A classic fish out of water, Caro has little regard for those around her, her sole concern being the money she stands to make from selling the family estate. She becomes the embodiment of colonialism, capitalism, and entrenched social inequality. The crumbling mansion she is determined to sell is as hollow and decayed as her own soul—a reflection of the moral emptiness that ultimately seals her fate. DEATH HAS NO MASTER is a masterfully crafted slow-burn thriller that deservedly premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last May. (ANNICK MAHNERT)