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‘Fever Dream,’ ( Distancia de Rescate/ Rescue Distance) is a Netflix Spanish thriller directed by Claudia Llosa. It is based on Samanta Schweblin’s novel of the same name that tells the story of a mother and daughter, who go to a remote Argentinian town for a vacation.
But what was supposed to be a happy memory turned tragic after she and her daughter got into a harrowing incident.
In a town filled with deformed children, and inexplicable mysteries, Amanda tries desperately to seek answers and save her young daughter.
Here is everything that happened in ‘Fever Dream.’
‘Fever Dream’ Synopsis and Ending Explained
Amanda Casali (Maria Valverde), a young mother, wakes up lying in the woods, feeling like worms are crawling her body. Someone drags her, and she hears the voice of a kid, David. David asks Amanda to stay awake as he tries to explain to her what is going on.
As David’s voice guides Amanda, she slowly remembers the incidents that happened to her in the past few weeks.
Through flashbacks, we see Amanda and her young daughter, Nina, travel to a small village in Argentina. She rents a house to spend a summer vacation.
Amanda’s late father was an Argentinian, and he used to visit Lake San Lucas when she was still young. She wants to spend quality family time in the lake with her husband, Marco, and their daughter. Marco will be joining them later.
Amanda’s neighbor, Carola, visits Amanda bringing two buckets of water. The water is a significant element in the film. Soon, Amanda discovers that David is Carola’s son. David has been acting strange and got ill. Carola asks Amanda not to let her daughter, Nina, play with David. Amanda was initially confused.
One day, Carola finally opens up about the odd incident that happened to David.
What Happened To David?
Samanta Schweblin discusses “Rescue Distance” in her book. It refers to the thread that ties a mother to her children, measuring the distance between them. As the distance between the mother and child increases, the thread gets tighter. Mothers always think about the danger and constantly measure the rescue distance so they can protect their kids. However, disasters sometimes win.
According to Carola, before David was born, she got paranoid that he would be deformed, like most children born in that small town. The reason behind the deformity later gets revealed at the end of the film. Although David was born a healthy baby, a tragic incident happened that changed everything.
Omar, Carola’s husband, is a racehorse breeder. He brought home a stallion to breed two mares and raise foals. During that time, Carola was helping her husband on the farm. When Omar was away one day, the stallion escaped from the fences and went into the woods.
Carola and young David went after the horse. Carola saddled the stallion, but the young David started playing in a stream. Carola hurriedly brought David and the horse home.
Later that night, David developed a high fever, and the horse died of poisoning. Carola theorized that the stream was toxic, infecting David and killing the horse.
Did Carola Save David?
Carola has seen plenty of tragic happenings in the place, again hinting at the deformed children. Worried, she could not wait for the country doctor to arrive, so she took David to a village doctor instead.
The village doctor is not a medical doctor but a witch known for her supernatural healing powers. She lived in an isolated house called Green House.
Upon examining David’s body, the village doctor found out that he got poisoned. His body is too weak to fight the infection, and the only way to save him is to split his soul. Part of the poison would also go with him. In the process, the remaining half of David’s spirit would leave his body, while an unknown spirit would then inhabit it in its place. Long story short, David will no longer be the same David anymore, but at least Carola will still have his son’s body around.
Although hesitant, Carola eventually agreed to the soul migration. The Village doctor then started the rituals, and David’s spirit got split. The migration took away half of the poison, and his body’s immunity fought against the remaining half. The young boy eventually recovered, but soon Carola realized he was not her son anymore.
The young boy still looked like David, but his personality changed.
The Truth Behind David’s Poisoning
Throughout the movie, David demands Amanda to pay close attention to the details. The mystery was in the tiny details.
The poison got mixed in the water supply of the entire village. The pesticides caused the death of animals and humans. It is also the reason behind the deformities in the children in the small town.
As you can remember, Carola mentioned how she saw different tragic events in town, which caused her to worry about David getting deformed when he was born.
In one scene, we saw Amanda visiting the village shop and meeting a child named Abigail. She, like most children in the village, also has a physical deformity.
In her dreams, David warns Amanda to leave town before it is too late. Amanda took the car at one point and tried to drive away. However, she saw a group of deformed children crossing the street on her way.
David tells Amanda that only very few children are born normal in the place. The water is slowly killing every living thing in the village. In one scene, we saw Carola calling David a monster as she recalls an event where David buried dead birds in the garden. Carola thought that David killed them, but the truth is, he found the birds floating dead in the river.
By now, we already know that the significance of water in the entire mystery.
What poisoned Amanda and Nina?
In the end, Amanda visits Carola before leaving town. Carola works in a pesticide company. While waiting for Carola, a worker outside accidentally drops a container full of pesticides. In Amanda’s dream, David tells her that she is already close.
Carola arrives, and she, Amanda, and Nina take a walk in the wheat fields. After that, Amanda suffers a stroke and gets admitted to the hospital. The delirious Amanda dreams of dew on the wheatgrass.
David tells her that she will now understand what he is telling her, but Amanda is only confused.
Suddenly, everything clicked, and the puzzle gets solved. In a dream, Amanda sees Nina running to her. Nina says that she had gotten wet with dew. Amanda tells her it was just a “dew.” She then takes out a popsicle, not knowing it got infected with the poisonous dew, and gives one to Nina as well.
Amanda realizes that the dew was, actually, pesticides. The pesticides, which she mistakenly thought were dew, were everywhere! It never rained in the village since Amanda arrived, but she found dew in her car’s windshield each morning. The pesticides poisoned the town’s water, putting everyone in danger.
What Was Carola’s True Intention?
Amanda got admitted to the hospital due to poisoning, but the facility lacked proper medical equipment and doctors to help her. The nurse tells Amanda that a doctor is already on the way. However, Carola knows that Amanda and Nina might no longer survive by the time he arrives. Without Amanda’s consent, Carola took Nina to the witch’s house to ask her to perform another migration.
In her dream, Amanda realizes that Carola wanted to get Nina. After David’s migration, Carola felt like she lost his son. Amanda theorized that Carola wanted to fill that void with a soul that is similar to David’s. Throughout the movie, we see Carola growing close to Nina. Amanda thinks that she wanted half of Nina’s soul on David’s body.
Through Amanda’s dream, David has been trying to warn Amanda about his mother’s true motives. It was David who dragged Amanda into the woods. Amanda asked David’s help to save Nina by bringing her to the woods. So, David took her body and loaded her into a boat.
While in a boat, Amanda feels like Nina is flying away, and the rescue distance between them is getting farther and farther. The thread suddenly snaps, and Amanda dies.
‘Fever Dream’ Ending Explained: What Happened To Nina?
There is one last thing that David wants Amanda to see. A few days after Amanda’s death, her husband, Marco, went to Carola’s house confused.
Carola’s husband, Omar, tells Marco that Carola has already left them. Marco tells Omar that Nina has been acting strange since the incident. She was recovering from the poisoning, but she became distant. Marco begged Omar for answers. However, Omar only had similar questions about David.
While talking with Omar, David saw Amanda’s car and sat inside it, holding Nina’s favorite toy. Omar dragged David out of Amanda’s car, and Marco did not see his daughter’s soul right in front of him, trapped in David’s body.
The village doctor managed to perform the migration and transferred half of Nina’s soul to David’s body. David’s body now has a complete soul again.
Marco now feels like his world has ended. He had always been busy at work before the incident. Now, his wife is gone, and his daughter has become mysteriously distant. As Marco leaves the house, David (with half of Nina’s soul), emotionally looks at him as his car drives away.
Where Is Carola?
Carola has always wanted to get out of the small village and travel the world. After Nina’s spiritual migration, she most likely left to pursue her dream. She probably does not feel like David is still her son, now that he has two souls inside of him.
