A seemingly innocent volleyball game spirals into chaos in Quadrilateral as a family struggles for balance.

Imagine a world where everything revolves around the number four: four passengers in a car, four chairs at the dinner table, and four family members.

For Adriana (Lizet Chávez), a determined marketing consultant, this fragile equilibrium is not just a lifestyle – it’s a matter of survival.

But what happens when a fifth person enters the equation? How can harmony be preserved when each new addition threatens to unravel the delicate order that she has so painstakingly constructed?

Directed by Peruvian filmmaker Daniel Rodríguez Risco, Quadrilateral won the Special Jury and Youth Jury Award Combo at the 2024 Fribourg International Film Festival before screening at the Adelaide Film Festival.

Adriana is at the centre of this family story, alongside her husband Alfredo (Gonzalo Molina), a dutiful office worker; their ambitious daughter Lucía (Valentina Saba), who is striving for a work internship; and their teenage son Felipe (Fausto Molina). Their seemingly perfect lives spiral into chaos when Adriana unexpectedly becomes pregnant with a second son, Tomás (Amil Mikati).

From the moment he is born, clutching his mother’s IUD in his tiny fist, Tomás embodies an unplanned and unwelcome disruption to the family’s perfect quadrilateral.

As Adriana confesses: “A third breaks up the order… life becomes too complicated.”

This sentiment sets the stage for a harrowing exploration of familial neglect and rejection, as Tomás silently bears the weight of his family’s indifference. Dressed in tattered clothes and confined to a cramped closet at the end of the hallway, he is rendered a ghost in his own home, forbidden from engaging with his parents or siblings.

As Quadrilateral unfolds, Tomás begins to emerge from his isolation, but the family’s obsessive quest for numerical “perfection” devolves into brutal competition. The only apparent solution to restore balance is an increasingly alarming chain of events in which family members are isolated through a series of violent interactions.

Tensions escalate into scenes of disturbing sibling rivalry, such as when Lucía nearly concusses Tomás by slamming him against the concrete edge of the swimming pool. In these moments, director Risco paints a harrowing portrait of a family teetering on the brink of collapse, masking their dysfunction behind a façade of control.

From its opening frame, Quadrilateral recalls the satirical works of global arthouse filmmakers like Yorgos Lanthimos and Bong Joon-ho, known for their minimalistic dialogue and symmetrical shot compositions.

Like Lanthimos, especially, Risco’s compelling film transforms the most innocuous situations into battlegrounds – who would have thought that a quiet family volleyball game could escalate into a display of competitive domestic abuse?

Quadrilateral forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about love, acceptance, and the extremes that people will go to maintain the illusion of a flawless family life.

Risco’s award-winning film is an unmissable opportunity for anyone seeking a unique cinematic experience that lingers long after the credits have rolled – prompting deep contemplation about the cost of conformity in a perfection-driven world.

 Quadrilateral screens on Friday 1 November at 8:30pm at The Piccadilly Cinema

This review was provided by the “2024 Emerging Screen Critics Program” – a Screen Studies collaboration between the Adelaide Film Festival and UniSA Creative, with the participation of students and mentors from the University of South Australia, the University of Adelaide and Flinders University. Supported by CityMag.