Ulises Rangel

LITOS Independent ⋄ Thriller LITOST: Log-line LITOST is a nearly untranslatable Czech word; a state of feeling miserable and humiliated. “Litost is a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery,” - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera. Litost connects insult to revenge, with the desire to strike back at the perceived source of one’s shame. After the kidnapping of his wife and son, Dither a European scientist becomes aphasic. Dither decides to synthesize a drug that will eradicate fear in humans and return to them the capacity to defend themselves when being threatened. With the help of his twin brother, Lothar, they are widely distributing METROMIX , a snack that contains this substance. In the streets, with the help of METROMIX, people begin to fantasize about their own freedom. During the story, we see that extreme sadness mixed with this drug has an unexpected effect, even for Dither and Lothar. This drug, directly and indirectly, plays out in the lives of the three other characters Marco, Rachel, and David. Marco is a theater director who is trying to produce his play “LITOS;” which he clings to as his only salvation, in the face of a cruel personal and economic crisis. A few days before the opening, one of his starring actresses, Jazmin, quits due to the fact that the play conflicts with her waitressing job. This news obliterates any hopes Marco had for his play. To console him Jazmin introduces Marco to Many and Julia, a hedonistic couple that host soirees dedicated to art and the stimulation of all the senses. Julia fascinates Marco from the first moment they meet. They all hit it off and along the way Many offers to produce Marco’s play, but in six months. Many mentions nothing further about the subject, leaving an already unstable Marco filled with further doubts and desperation which in turn feed his worst emotions. During one of the many evenings passed at Many and Julia’s abodes, they all partake in a potent mixture of drugs and Marco has a nightmarish hallucination. He murders Many and fulfills his attraction for Julia. After the killing, he is washing his hands in the bathroom, when there is a knock at the door. He exits to Julia needing to use the bathroom; he realizes it was all just an illusion. Moreover, that the good guy he once was- is gone. Rachel is making a documentary about the forced sterilization of women with radical politics. During the filming, a friend refuses to help her further because she is afraid. One day Rachel observes that she is being followed. Her attempt to escape on her bike fails. She awakes sedated and tied in a hospital. Rachel dreams about finishing her documentary and it’s opening night, where the audience is driven to riot after the showing. She awakens only to be told that her documentary was neither finished, nor screened, nor was there any uprising. Thus, she falls into the state of LITOST. David convinces his friends that the time to take responsibility for the future of their country is now, and they begin to send anonymous messages to corrupt politicians. Achieving some victories of getting politicians to renounce their positions, they feel the need to show the seriousness of their group; they decide to kill one of the politicians who has not resigned. However, the course runs badly, and David’s girlfriend Coral dies at the hand’s of the politician, leaving David in a state of LITOST. The combination of LITOST and METROMIX puts us on the path to an unexpected ending.