Erupcja: Volcano, So Erupting | SXSW 2026
The film's chimeric construction is as much an asset as it is a weakness; you're never really sure what these characters are gonna do next because, well, neither are the actors. Erupcja doesn't encourage spontaneity; it lives in it, which makes it propulsive but voids it of detail.
When Charli XCX first announced she was pivoting to acting after the summer claiming smash of her album BRAT, I'll admit that I was a little skeptical, but after catching her in The Moment, Aiden Zamiri’s takedown of the entertainment industry, I left with major confidence in XCX’s talents, her comedic timing and vulnerability, even if she was only playing a fictionalized version of herself. In Erupcja, her first lead role not in the eye of the pop star storm, the singer cum actress shows a promising range in a picture that's cool and moody and effervescent, yet maybe not as interesting as its concept or players.
Bethany (XCX) is a British tourist. Nel (Lena Gora) a Polish local. And every time they see each other, a volcano erupts somewhere in the world, which the two have taken as a jokey excuse to throw caution to the wind, which damages their personal relationships in the process. Charli XCX falls back into a sapphic situationship to avoid committing to her bald man boyfriend (Will Madden); don't tell George. But more than just joke fodder for the chronically online, Erupcja taps into something real about avoidance with terrific if inconsistent interest, quietly seizing and vacant, scripted on the fly like an exquisite corpse and informed only by the whims of its director, the cultural gap between Poland and London, and the input of its core cast.
Director Pete Ohs shapes the film around the aesthetic atmosphere of Warsaw, jutting apartment buildings and architecture that recall the 70s and the now, a crossing of time and space. All of this is interspersed with narration that lends the volcanic fallout of Bethany and Nel’s escapist escapades a fairy-tale feel, while the edit itself is more party-girl-pilled, speeding up in enthusiastic glee and slowing back to reality. The film's chimeric construction is as much an asset as it is a weakness; you're never really sure what these characters are gonna do next because, well, neither are the actors. Erupcja doesn't encourage spontaneity; it lives in it, which makes it propulsive but voids it of detail.
There are many intervals where Ohs feels at a loss at how to continue, not even writing himself into a corner; he's crushed by the empty space. At times it allows the audience to fill in those blanks with nuance, in others we're left without a paddle to rely on; there's a lengthy section of the film in which XCX was off set, leaving Gora, Madden, and Jeremy O’Harris to waffle along the streets trying to find a resolution as their character arcs flicker and die with her absence.
At a light 71 minutes, though, I do think what's here is compelling enough to watch. Ohs shoots the city masterfully, honing in on its magnetic beauty with bountifully wide compositions stuffed into a 4:3 aspect ratio. The cast give wonderful, naturalistic performances, XCX in particular playing against her scene-kid persona for someone you could meet on the street and wouldn't think twice about, except for the way she slips the smile off like a mask or turns her eyes away with a glint of boredom. A remarkable turn in a film that fascinates more as an experiment in storytelling than as an actual film proper, light and airy, thin to the point it breezes past you in a gentle wind. Even its eruptions are quiet, and in a movie centred on a volcano, that kinda says it all.
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