We are all surrounded by a social network that constantly suggests, through countless algorithms, what the best version of our lives could — and should — be. It has become so inherently present in our world that optimising and sharing ourselves now feels like part of our daily routine. Alongside this comes the desire to leave all of it behind and pursue happiness instead: not necessarily what is best for us, but the longing for freer choices, beyond the three pillars of stoicism, utilitarianism, and epicureanism. This is the place where Erupcja, the film directed and produced by Pete Ohs, takes us.
Explosive chemistry between a Polish florist and a British tourist, set against a charming postcard-like backdrop and sapphic synchronicity form the narrative core of a film featuring an incredible cast including Charli xcx, Lena Góra, Jeremy O. Harris, Will Madden, and Agata Trzebuchowska. A volcanic eruption becomes the axis of a story in which the romantic vacation of Bethany (Charli xcx) and her soon-to-be fiancé, Rob (Will Madden), in Warsaw collides with Bethany’s past, leaving her on the edge of discovering what she truly wants her life to be.
What’s more, Erupcja is one of the first film projects Charli xcx has had a lead acting role in. Beyond delivering a more than convincing performance — including a stunning scene involving poetry — she is part of the film’s production and writing team as well. Erupcja is a story about how coincidence and spontaneity are deeply present in our lives. How we relate to them can lead us toward difficult but important questions and revelations about our inner selves. Both the meticulous cinematography and the enigmatic narration give shape to a film that nods to the French New Wave while embracing artistry throughout its entire creative process.
Pete Ohs is an Ohio-born filmmaker who writes, directs, shoots, and edits. A four-time Emmy Award winner, he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2013 and has since become known for his genre-bending independent features and music videos. He also directed the horror-satire The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick, which premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival. His debut narrative feature, Everything Beautiful Is Far Away, starring Julia Garner and Joseph Cross, premiered in competition at the 2017 Los Angeles Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Fiction Cinematography Award. Ohs has also directed acclaimed music videos for Wavves and Best Coast, both recognised by Pitchfork among the year’s best. Erupcja premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and had its Polish premiere just last week.
“Three months later, the world had turned green and we were in Warsaw shooting,” recalls Pete, speaking about working with Charli and the rest of the cast in a process shaped by late-night drinks, text messages, and coincidental encounters. In this interview, the filmmaker generously shares thoughts and behind-the-scenes stories about the film and its “extremely collaborative process”: the perfect conversation to read before watching Erupcja.
Hi, Pete! It’s a pleasure to speak to you. How are you?
I’m hot! There’s a heat wave in New York City and now I’m wondering if a volcano erupted nearby.
Erupcja is getting its premiere in Warsaw, which is where the story is set. Are you excited? Do you have anything special planned for the day?
I’m definitely excited. I’m also a bit sad because I wish I was there for the release. I’ll be waiting to hear from my friends in Poland about how it went and hopefully they’ll send me some pictures and videos.
How did the idea for the film come about?
I was having drinks with Jeremy and some others at a bar in New York City. I mentioned I was living in Warsaw and someone else said they were stuck in Warsaw for a month in 2010 when the volcano in Iceland erupted and an ash cloud cancelled flights all over Europe. I had been living in Iceland in 2010 and this coincidence was the first idea I shared with Charli.
Do you remember that moment when something clicked and you decided you wanted to write this story?
I was on a train ride to Baltimore when Charli texted me and asked what ideas I had. I said one character speaks Polish, another character doesn’t and somehow volcanoes are involved. She said “is that all?” And I said, that’s all I’ve got. A few text messages later, we had come up with the idea of two ladies that make volcanoes erupt every time they get together.
The film has a fantastic cast, and one of the main characters is played by Charli xcx. This is one of the first projects she’s taken on as an actress. Can you tell us a bit about how you met and how this collaboration came about?
That’s a story I shared with Variety when the news first broke that we were making a movie together in Warsaw but it’s such a fun story that I don’t mind repeating it. I really was just in the right place at the right time. I was getting drinks with Jeremy O. Harris at a bar in his neighbourhood in New York City. It was 3 o’clock in the morning and Charli walked into the bar. She and Jeremy knew each other so he invited her over to our table. We started talking about making movies, I described my specific process, and she said “Can I do one?” This was May of 2024, so before “Brat Summer”. Three months later, the world had turned green and we were in Warsaw shooting.
Coincidence plays a very important role in the story: especially in the way the characters relate to it in different ways. Some use it as something special and unique, a way to justify their decisions rather than facing up to situations. Was it difficult to work around this idea and develop the script?
We write the movie as we make it and shoot the movie in order. It’s about being open and present and engaged. I kept suggesting coincidences that could happen and some of the team thought “This is too much! It won’t be believable!” to which I said, Let’s do more coincidences then and make that the thing! I find that coincidences are happening all the time in my life if I’m paying attention. The question is do they mean anything and how should they inform my actions.
The cinematography is fantastic. I loved those close-ups of the flowers at the start of the film, the images of the erupting volcanoes and the screens of different colours used to transition from one scene to another. It gives the film an arthouse feel where special attention is paid to artistic details. Was this important for the narrative you had in mind?
The close ups of flowers were how I originally thought the movie would begin. Flowers are rich and colourful and intricate but are quick to wither and dry up. Relationships can be like this too. The colour transitions were a discovery in the edit. Colours bring so much energy. When someone enters a room with a bright red shirt on, we feel that. I wanted to use colour to inform the feeling of the scene and to make the audience pay more attention to colour.
“I was on a train ride to Baltimore when Charli texted me and asked what ideas I had. I said one character speaks Polish, another character doesn’t and somehow volcanoes are involved.”
The narrator is played by Jacek Zubiel. His voice is almost like another character in its own right, driving the story forward by describing aspects and details of the protagonists’ lives, or simply their intimate thoughts. How did you decide which parts of the story would be told by the narrator and which by the characters themselves?
The narrator idea came from a note from a friend to try something like Jules and Jim. I was already referencing Agnès Varda and other French New Wave films so this made sense. I was delighted to learn that it also feels like a lektor from a Polish dub. The characters in Erupcja struggle to express themselves. I felt that the narrator also should not have access to the character’s inner feelings and that he would strictly share facts. He’s like an anthropologist reporting his observations.
I also like the idea of a marriage proposal taking place in the National Museum in Warsaw, filled with works of art and 19th-century paintings; it’s quite original! But also, the character of Claude and his painting, and the scene where he shows it to the others at a house party. Why was it important to you that visual art was present in this way in the film?
The National Museum was one of the first places I visited on my first trip to Warsaw so I was excited to feature it in the movie. Jeremy O. Harris, who plays Claude, is one of my best friends and also a producer on the movie. He came to Warsaw to help make the movie but it wasn’t clear yet what his role would be. After spending some time in the city centre, Jeremy observed other artists who weren’t from Poland but were thriving in Warsaw. This inspired the character.
The relationship between the two main characters is special and fun, but it seems a bit unbalanced: Nel avoids her sister, doesn’t go to work and shirks her responsibilities, almost as if she’s a little afraid of not doing what Bethany suggests. It’s an unusual relationship for both of them, or at least for Nel, which emerges unexpectedly in the timeline. What were the main challenges you faced in developing their story? And to what extent were Lena Góra and Charli involved in it?
It wasn’t clear to us what Nel and Bethany’s relationship was and that kept it exciting. I enjoyed observing their power dynamics and the push and pull of their attraction. We would do different versions of scenes, sometimes more flirty or more distant. The challenge was in the edit to find the right balance and nuance that kept things interesting and connected. Every day at breakfast and dinner, we all would discuss the movie and write the upcoming scenes. Lena and Charli knew the most about their characters and had many strong opinions and insightful observations about what their characters would or wouldn’t do in any given situation.
Both of them, along with Jeremy O. Harris and Will Madden, are credited as part of the film’s writing team, and Jeremy and Charli are also involved in the production. Overall, it feels as though this film has become a collective project (and process). What was that like for you?
This is the fifth movie I’ve made using this extremely collaborative process. It’s thrilling. It’s specific. It’s human. If it was a different group of people, it would be a completely different movie and that’s what I love about it. Erupcja is what was created when this specific group of humans got together in this specific location at this specific time.
The film is set in Warsaw, and at one point Nel’s character even talks about her reluctance to leave Poland, as she seems happy in the city. What aspects of the city pleasantly surprised you?
I had moved to Warsaw the previous year and was living there all the way up to filming. Many of the locations in the film were my favourite places to go. Before coming to Poland, I was expecting a city that was black and white, very possibly because of renowned filmmakers like Paweł Pawlikowski. I was pleasantly surprised to find a country and city that was full of colour. It was vibrant and youthful with an active creative culture. I fell in love with Warsaw and wanted to share that with the world.
A volcanic eruption is an unusual event for most people, so in a way it also presents itself as an opportunity for hedonism for both Bethany and Nel. It somehow made me think of the Covid pandemic and how, as a society, we projected ourselves into a future where we were going to change many things about our lives so that we could enjoy them more. In the film, Rob shares reliable data showing that, in reality, this isn’t such an uncommon occurrence. Did you have to research this sort of event for the film? If so, did you discover anything that was significant or inspiring to you?
On the second day of the shoot, Mount Etna actually erupted. That’s why it’s Mount Etna in the movie. We couldn’t believe it. We all were like Bethany and Nel. We took it as a sign. It wasn’t until the second week of the shoot that I finally googled volcanic eruptions and did the maths. It was only then that we wrote the lines for Rob about how many volcanoes erupt each year. I loved how it presented an alternate perspective but doesn’t change the fact that the volcanoes did erupt.
The poem Darkness, by Lord Byron, is read by Charli’s character in a heartfelt scene. It fits the storytelling perfectly. When did you come across the poem? Once you knew you wanted to incorporate it in the film; was it difficult to place it in the scenes?
A few weeks before the shoot, Charli sent me a text about the poem. She had come across it randomly and felt the themes and imagery were connected to the film. I agreed but neither of us knew how or if it would get incorporated. It wasn’t until our final night filming with Charli that we figured it out. We were all at dinner and we had one more scene to shoot. It was going to be at Nel’s apartment but we didn’t know what it would be. Jeremy and I went on a walk around the block to brainstorm. Jeremy said our final scene with Charli should be something special. When he said this, I remembered the poem. We returned to dinner and I presented the idea. Charli loved it and two hours later, she had it memorised and ready to perform.
“On the second day of the shoot, Mount Etna actually erupted. That’s why it’s Mount Etna in the movie. We couldn’t believe it.”
Are you working on new films or new projects right now, that you can share with us?
I have multiple new films in the works. They are all different genres and locations. I’m not precious about ideas. If you just look out the window, you’ll see another movie that could be made. I don’t like to force things. I let go and trust that the universe will tell me which movie it wants to see next.
Thanks so much for your time, Pete! All the best with Erupcja, and all the future projects!
Dziękuję bardzo!
