After numerous rejections, Ema's parents finally find a safe place for their daughter who has been diagnosed on the autism spectrum. In the loving community of the new primary school in the small town on the river, Ema can silently observe and explore the world at her own pace. The film gently follows Ema's small steps that evolve into magical moments.
A veil of sadness lies over the oppressively hot summer days. Cleo dives into daydreams with her cousins, the girls share secret signs and rituals. Flowing gently, in impressionistic images, the empty space that the death of Cleo’s sister has left in the family is poetically encircled.
Renata seeks refuge in the house of Virginia, her sister. Virginia lives a quiet life with her son Lucio in a provincial city and the only thing that seems to worry her are the ants that have invaded her home. Renata has nowhere to go. Virginia wants to help her and receives her; But the days pass and the drama of daily life begins to reveal the link between them, the pain of recognizing and rediscovering each other in a past that returns and takes strange forms.
Greta and Bruno, her husband, struggle with grief after the disappearance of their son. Their friend Sina travels to the coast to help them sell their summer house.
In the depths of her mind, pain takes the form of a creature. A love relationship unleashes the obscurity within, to evoke in the real world, a world of shadows.
Rodrigo and his mother travel to the town where his older brother just died. In this calm place they will go through the first stages of their mourning. Rodrigo will start to peer on grown-ups grief and, imperceptibly, will begin to leave childhood behind. His mother will try to uncover the mysteries surrounding that death. A story suspended in time, floating between the countryside lost places.
Agatha and Leonidas have a somewhat absorbing mother-child relationship: Agatha never fell in love again, and Leonidas doesn't know what love is. From one day to the next, Agatha wakes up in the body of a seven-year-old girl.
In a working-class neighborhood, in the outskirts of a small town, a group of children is faced with a strange and terrifying incident, which will soon develop into a true epidemic: all adults have turned into “sleepy beings”. The children, petrified yet determined, try hard to keep their spirits high and not give up hope that somehow, someday, their parents will “wake up”. As this uncanny drama unfolds, the stories of the “sleepers” are uncovered through the traces of their absence. A poetic and haunting reflection on loneliness and loss, a silent cry for companionship and human touch.
A WhatsApp audio begins, and with it, a downward spiral unfolds. The voice of a woman sinking into a health anxiety attack, quickly entangles a complex labyrinth of fears and emotions. The Spiral is a dive into a lonely ride, an hypnotic escalation towards childhood, family, and the loneliness of “home”. Does home really feel like home?
