Ghost tale Erratics gives Chilean director Thomas Woodroffe San Sebastian debut
A ghost wakes after a century frozen inside a glacier in Patagonia. That is the starting point for Erratics (Bloques erráticos), the debut feature from Chilean filmmaker Thomas Woodroffe, which holds its world premiere in New Directors, the San Sebastián Festival's section for early-career directors, according to Variety.
The film follows Lucien Castelnau, a fictional French filmmaker. His spirit wakes in Patagonia after being trapped in ice for 100 years. French actor Denis Lavant plays Castelnau.
Castelnau then wanders through a futuristic Patagonia. He cannot rest while his films remain unseen, in a story where technological progress clashes with forgotten stories, according to the San Sebastián Festival.
Paris-based MPM Premium handles international sales, meaning it licenses the film to distributors territory by territory. The 92-minute film is a Chile-France-Argentina co-production, meaning companies from the three countries share the production. It is produced by Fiebre SpA in Chile, La Belle Affaire Productions in France and Un Puma in Argentina.
Alongside Lavant, the cast includes Francesca Bozzano, Dominique Legoupil, Reinaldo Caro, Daniel Muñoz, Dominga Sotomayor and Felipe Gálvez. The screenplay was co-written by Woodroffe and Valeria Hofmann.
Woodroffe was born in Santiago in 1995. He works as a director, screenwriter, cinematographer and image post-producer, and previously wrote and directed the short Austral Fever. He served as cinematographer on Diego Céspedes' The Summer of the Electric Lion, which won the Grand Prize at Cannes' Cinéfondation, its competition for student films.
The director spent five years researching and developing Erratics. He is now pursuing a Master's degree in Film Preservation at Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola in San Sebastián.
What makes this stand out is the overlap. A filmmaker training to save old films has made a first feature about a filmmaker whose work was never seen.
The 74th San Sebastián International Film Festival runs 18-26 September, according to Cineuropa. Erratics screens in competition in the 2026 New Directors selection.
