In summer, the Portuguese countryside is ravaged by fires. Otilia struggles between her job as a pool cleaner and the need to take care of her mother. The surrounding flames begin to suffocate her everyday life, awakening a desire to escape her solitude and despair.

Like a slow-burning fire this film exposes how the inexorable pressures of daily life lead to an existential crisis. The image of fire, so intrinsic to Portuguese folklore, weaves through the lives of Otilia and her loved ones, but the metaphor of fire also serves to illuminate and signal danger. Originally from France, director Aurélie Oliveira Pernet has studied graphic design, film and literature. Her film draws parallels between the struggle of daily existence and the ravaging force of nature.