Rotting in the Sun is now showing exclusively on MUBI in the series Chaos Theory: A Sebastián Silva Retrospective.
Chilean director Sebastián Silva and influencer-comedian Jordan Firstman joined us earlier this year to talk about their collaboration on Rotting in the Sun, now streaming exclusively on MUBI.
In the film, Silva and Firstman play off-kilter versions of themselves. When Silva's character embarks on a solo trip to a gay nudist beach to cure his existential woes, he's saved from drowning by none other than Instagram celebrity Jordan Firstman—a peppy foil to the downtrodden, ketamine-fueled Sebastián. A huge fan of Sebastián's films, Jordan pitches his new project, an indulgent-sounding riff on Curb Your Enthusiasm called You Are Me. But when Sebastián suddenly goes missing, Jordan embarks on a wild, quasi-detective journey through Mexico City to uncover the truth.
In this conversation, Silva and Firstman chat about the making of this "post-COVID existential comedy," acting alongside Catalina Saavedra (the star of Silva's 2009 breakout The Maid), and the film's unfiltered portrayal of sex and drugs.