FIEBRE CARIBE

LOGLINE

Dealing with a deadly condition, Talyssa isolates herself in a North American city during the dead of winter, hustling with odd editing gigs and voyeuristic activities. When a collector from her native city contacts her to work on a corrupted, obscure film project, she embarks on a feverish journey back to the Venezuelan Caribbean.

SYNOPSIS 

Talyssa's immigration status is a mystery. Born Venezuelan but raised in the United States, she hides a deadly condition. She endures cannibalistic urges she’s learned to restrain through isolation and voyeurism. She works as an editor of disturbing and forbidden films, channeling her hunger into the act of watching. Occasionally, she slips into crowds or spaces: clubs, performances, intimate gatherings, feeding on the sight of others to keep her impulses at bay. Her fragile routine shatters when a Venezuelan film collector, Ulises, contacts her about restoring a corrupted film documenting a 1989 Caracas massacre. As she studies its fragmented footage, she becomes obsessed: within the images lurks something unnatural, an entity that seems alive. Her correspondence with Ulises grows into a charged digital relationship, filled with shared secrets, desire, and an unspoken recognition; he, too, craves human flesh. Compelled by him and by the film’s pull, Talyssa returns to Venezuela, a homeland both foreign and familiar. Together, she and Ulises descend into the mystery of the lost footage, suspecting that the entity it contains may be the origin of their condition. As the country experiences an unexpected curfew, they retreat to the coast, surrendering to isolation and to each other. There, in an abandoned house corroded by salt and silence, they abandon the lost film and begin their own. Their final act of creation becomes one of consumption: recording themselves as they devour each other.

TEAM BIO

Diego Andrés Murillo (Director, Co-writer, Producer):

Artist/self-taught filmmaker: director, writer, editor, producer. I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela and studied digital photography at The Roberto Mata School in Caracas. Co-founded EL FANTASMA, a Venezuelan film collective/studio. I migrated from my native country out of necessity in the year 2016 and unexpectedly stayed in NYC, my home for the past 9 years. To this date I’ve released five short films of different genres and styles. El Sonido Es El Cuerpo “Sound Is The Body”, an experimental feature I just finished, currently awaits release, as I develop Fiebre Karibe “Karibbean Fever”, another long-form film, while continuing to work on other parallel projects. My projects usually entail speculative fictions that tackle topics such as individual/collective migration, apocalyptic imaginations, historical re-imagining, and repressed desires, emotions & malaises. These films have screened and won awards at international film festivals including Locarno, Brussels, Sitges, Cinélatino Toulouse, Tacoma Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival, Uruguay Film Festival, Chicago Latino FF, among others. I’m a recipient of the Jerome Production Grant, the Venezuelan National Film Fund, and have participated in programs such as the Locarno Open Doors, Locarno Spring Academy, Tres Puertos Lab and the CineQuaNon Residency.

Eduardo Andrés Díaz (Co-writer, Producer):

Producer and narrator born in Los Teques, Miranda State, Venezuela. His early experiences navigating Venezuela's political and social turmoil shaped his path to cinema. He graduated from Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas with a degree in Audiovisual Production and Corporate Communications. At age 21, he moved to New York, where he immersed himself in a new culture and connected with stories and people from diverse backgrounds. In 2023, he began his career as a general producer, working on “El Sonido es el Cuerpo” (Sound is the Body), Diego Andrés Murillo's first feature film, currently awaiting release. In early 2024, he joined the collective “El Fantasma,” a Venezuelan art and film production company and guild. With this union, he continued his work with Diego Andrés Murillo, this time on his second feature film, Fiebre Karibe, where he continued to contribute to its development, including co-writing. In 2025, he produced a short film by another member of “El Fantasma,” director Humberto González. The work, Los Conjurados, has been selected for festivals such as the Edinburgh IFF, Third Horizon IFF, the BFI London, and the Festival du Nouveau Cinema. At the same time, he completed the production of another short film, Te Seguimos Buscando, again under the direction of Diego Andrés Murillo, currently awaiting its premiere at the Beijing Int. Short Film Festival. In the summer of 2025, he embarked on directing, co-creating the short film No Tengo Boca, Aún Así Debo Gritar (I Have No Mouth, Yet I Must Shout) with Diego Andrés Murillo, a project that arose from the fourth edition of the Nouvelle Bug avant-garde film residency.

Verónica Kompalic (Producer):

Vero is a Venezuelan filmmaker and writer. Her scholarship centers on postcolonial feminist discourse, with published work on the sexual transgressions in Catherine Breillat’s films and the radical cinematic language of Mariana Rondón. In 2020, Vero co-founded DISCORDIA, a production company formed with long-time collaborators and producers. Since its inception, DISCORDIA’s work has been funded, supported and/or recognized by leading institutions and festivals including Locarno, Tribeca, New Directors/New Films, Sundance, SXSW, SFFILM, Film Independent, Berlinale, La Biennale di Venezia, Rotterdam, and The Gotham/IFP. Their slate includes This Closeness, directed by Kit Zauhar, which premiered at SXSW and was distributed by MUBI; Yosi, directed by Jimmy Goldblum and selected for the 2024 Gotham Market; and Capítulos Perdidos, directed by Lorena Alvarado, a recent selection for New Directors/New Films. Beyond production, DISCORDIA has expanded into exhibitions. In 2023, the company launched a screening series dedicated to showcasing work by overlooked filmmakers in the U.S. In 2024, they hosted retrospectives of Jean-Pierre Bekolo and Sophie Letourneur at the historic Roxie Theater in San Francisco and invited both filmmakers to the US. DISCORDIA has also supported festivals such as SFFILM, HABITAR CINE, and most recently, the Los Angeles Festival of Movies. Vero’s debut short, PLÁSTICO, premiered at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Mention.