Six years after his evocative character study The Ornithologist, Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues is returning with a new feature. The 67-minute Will-o’-the-Wisp will premiere tomorrow in Directors’ Fortnight and follows a royal highness who, on his deathbed, recalls distant memories of his youth when he dreamt of becoming a fireman.
“The encounter with instructor Afonso from the fire brigade, opens a new chapter in the life of the two young men devoted to love and desire, and the will to change the status quo,” the logline reads, hitting at another sexually charged odyssey from Rodrigues. Ahead of the premiere, we’re delighted to exclusively debut the first trailer.
“I absolutely wanted to make a comedy,” said the director. “I’d already approached the genre with To Die Like a Man. Comedy is the most difficult genre to do successfully, and it is a genre to which I am greatly attracted. Will-O’-The-Wisp is a comedy and a musical, yet the description that would best fit my film is: fantasy, as it is much akin to a reverie. The film touches upon very concrete themes and at the same time it begins like a science-fiction film, as we are in 2069. This is what makes my approach to comedy somewhat offbeat.”
Watch the NSFW trailer below.