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Alfredo Castro in Immersion. Nicolás Postiglione: 'He would never, ever go for the first emotion that I would ask him to do, which is awesome. I'm a first-time director, so I learned a lot doing this film' Praised for its “suspenseful tension that never lets go” by the First Feature Competition jury at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Immersion is a gripping mix of thriller elements and more arthouse sensibilities as it tells the tale of a father, who finds his paranoia and prejudice getting the better of him after he and his daughters Tere (Consuelo Carreño) and Claudia (Mariela Mignot) come across three men struggling in a boat while out on their yacht and he reluctantly agrees to help them. The film was co-written by Moisés Sepúlveda and Agustín Toscano – both directors in their own right – and in the second part of our interview with director and co-writer Nicolás Postiglione,...

Nicolas Postiglione: 'One of our main hopes was for it to be equally balanced, that you could be the daughter or the father' Photo: Courtesy of Poff Immersion marks the first feature from director Nicolás Postiglione, who picked up a Special Jury Prize for his arthouse drama/thriller hybrid at this year's Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. The film sees tensions reach boiling point between a father and his daughters Tere (Consuelo Carreño) and Claudia (Mariela Mignot) after he at first refuses to help a boat of local lads who appear to be in difficulty. The film becomes increasingly gripping as the family returns to help as the ambiguity surrounding the men Michael Silva and Alex Quevedo) on the smaller boat increases. In the first part of our sit-down interview with the writer director, we talked about the location of the film, shooting on the water and maintaining ambiguity over where the audience's sympathies lie.

If there's one thing that cinema has taught us down the years, it's that messing about on boats rarely works out well for the middle classes and this tense addition to the sub-genre from Nicolas Postiglione shows you don't even need to be on the open water in order to find yourself all at sea.

The yacht in this instance, is owned by Ricardo (Alfredo Castro), who has brought his two grown daughters Tere (Consuelo Carreño) and Claudia (Mariela Mignot) on a day trip to his empty childhood home, which his brother wishes to sell. Tensions are immediately obvious between him and Tere, her long-standing resentment over his absenteeism as a father manifesting itself in small acts of rebellion, such as going topless to provoke him. As the girls crack open a beer, their father waxes lyrical, while noting, without a trace of irony as to who was there first,...