AMERICAN INDIES

BOOGER

2023 / 78 min / color

After a couple of intriguing short films, the time has come for young American director Mary Dauterman’s feature debut. And it’s a peculiar one: Booger is an intriguing combination of body horror with elements of black comedy. Dauterman uses a genre framework to discuss the painful subject of bereavement. Anna, the central character of her film, has just lost her roommate Izzy, who was also her closest friend. Their cat Booger becomes Anna’s only tangible trace of Izzy, but the moody animal, after scratching Anna, escapes through the window. Unable to cope with the situation, Anna rejects the help of loved ones and becomes increasingly withdrawn; her only goal is to find Booger. She begins to experience a disturbing physical transformation, taking on one animal trait after another. In her film, Dauterman tells the story of the power of female friendship and the shock, affecting both body and senses, of its unexpected disintegration.