Fever Dream

Amanda, a woman from Buenos Aires, is lying in a hospital bed. Next to her is David, a strange boy who is helping her recount the events leading up to the current moment. David claims there is something important Amanda will gain from doing so.

Stepping back in time a few days to tell Amanda’s story, Amanda arrives in David’s village, a small farming town in the Argentinian countryside. She brings her daughter, Nina, along with her and the two of them rent a vacation home. While staying in the home, they meet David’s mother, Carla, who is one of the locals. Carla works for Sotomayor, the biggest farmer in the region. Amanda likes Carla until Carla begins telling her strange stories about David. According to Carla, David ingested poison and almost died. The only reason he is still alive is because Carla took him to an alternative medicine practitioner with supernatural powers (the woman in the green house) and had her perform a “migration” on him. According to Carla, a migration is when one’s soul splits in two and half goes into the body of someone else.

After the migration, David began to act differently. He no longer treated Carla as his mother and strange things started to occur. David would stare at animals until they fell over dead and would often sneak out of the house in the middle of the night. After hearing these stories about David, Amanda does not want Nina around him. One day, she comes home to find Carla standing outside her rental home. Carla tells Amanda that David is inside with Nina and urges her to find them quickly. Sensing danger, Amanda runs inside to find that David is a normal (albeit slightly strange) child. Amanda yells at Carla for scaring her and demands that she leave the house.

Distressed by the entire situation, Amanda decides to take Nina and go home the following morning. Amanda is a paranoid parent as it is, and Carla’s stories are not helping. However, she feels bad for yelling at Carla, so she stops at Sotomayor’s farm before leaving. While there, Amanda and Nina unwittingly sit in grass that is covered in toxic pesticides. Soon, Amanda becomes gravely ill and is unable to leave town with Nina. Carla takes care of Amanda and Nina the best she can, although she does not call Amanda’s husband to let him know what is going on. Carla takes Nina and Amanda to the nearest clinic, but the medical staff are not helpful. They simply claim Amanda and Nina suffered heat stroke and will be fine.

The next morning, feeling delirious and paranoid, Amanda tries to drive Nina home. However, they are stopped when they encounter a line of children with deformities (including David) crossing the road. The children are all victims of the pesticides used on Sotomayor’s farm. Amanda gets out of the car to ask for water and suddenly realizes she cannot walk straight. She urges Nina to go get help and then passes out. When Amanda wakes up, she is in the hospital and Carla is watching over her. Carla tells Amanda that Nina was about to die, so she took her to the woman in the green house for another migration. Amanda is upset and wants to get Nina away from the woman in the green house immediately, but she cannot move.

Back in the present, Amanda tells David that she feels close to death and still does not know what he hoped she would learn. David informs her that she will die soon but offers to give her a glimpse of the future, which might help explain things. Suddenly, Amanda has a vision of her husband visiting Omar, David’s father. Amanda’s husband is frustrated because he does not understand why Nina returned to him acting like an entirely different person. Omar informs Amanda’s husband that he does not know what happened to Nina and cannot help him. Frustrated, Amanda’s husband gets in his car to leave. There, he finds David sitting where Nina used to sit and clutching one of her toys, suggesting part of Nina’s soul might have ended up in David’s body. However, if this is the case, Nina’s presence does not register with Amanda’s husband, as he kicks David out of the car and drives home. On his way back to Buenos Aires, Amanda’s husband ignores the various signs of environmental decay that are occurring all around him.