Soroche
Adapted by Cuentero Productions from the short story by award-winning Ecuadorian writer Mónica Ojeda (Jawbone, Nefando), translated by Sarah Booker and Noelle de la Paz and published in “Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories” by Two Lines Press, “Soroche” depicts the effects of a leaked sex tape, filtered through the dizzying lens of altitude sickness.
CONTENT WARNING: Toxic friendship, body horror, graphic sexual content, self-harm.
Adapted by Cuentero Productions from the short story by award-winning Ecuadorian writer Mónica Ojeda (Jawbone, Nefando), translated by Sarah Booker and Noelle de la Paz and published in Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories by Two Lines Press, “Soroche” depicts the effects of a leaked sex tape, filtered through the dizzying lens of altitude sickness.
Told in alternating perspectives of Viviana, Karina, Nicole, and Ana—best friends since childhood— ‘Soroche’ recounts the tragic events of a mountain trip intended to help Ana break out of depression following a scandal and the dissolution of an abusive relationship.
The chorus of these friends’ confessions reveal contradictions, ruthlessly exposing the flawed friendships and brutal hypocrisies lurking below the surface—all through the haze of Ana’s unraveling.
Credits
“Soroche” was written by Mónica Ojeda
It was translated by Sarah Booker and Noelle de la Paz
And it was directed and executive produced by Camilo Garzón
“Soroche” was included in Through the Night Like a Snake, a collection of Latin American horror stories published by Two Lines Press
It was produced by Cuentero Productions under their client-facing trademark: Cuentero Traunseúnte Productions™
Two Lines Press is an imprint of the Center for the Art of Translation, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California
Illustration by poet and visual artist Giovanna Lomanto
Cast
Catalina Plata Guevara as Ana
MJ García as Karina
Claudia Andrea Escobar as Viviana
And Laura Ubaté as Nicole
Crew
Laura Ubaté and Camilo Garzón did voice direction, audio production and editing
Catherine Girardeau did consulting and creative production
María Linares did the score, including a piece called “Marina”
Daniel Murcia and Juan David Sarmiento did the sound design, engineering, and mixing
Sarah Dealy was our recording engineer at the North Fig Sound Studio in Los Angeles, California
Additional location sound recording in L.A. by Kiara Beltrán
Social media production for the Brava performance by Laura Villa
Mónica Ojeda (Ecuador, 1988) is the author of the novels La desfiguración Silva, Nefando, and Mandíbula, as well as the poetry collections El ciclo de las piedras and Historia de la leche. Her stories have been published in the anthology Emergencias: Doce cuentos iberoamericanos and the collections Caninos and Las voladoras. In 2017, she was included on the Bógota39 list of the best thirty-nine Latin American writers under forty, and in 2019, she received the Prince Claus Next Generation Award in honor of her outstanding literary achievements.
Sarah Booker’s work has appeared in Latin American Literature Today, Translation Review, and Palabras Errantes, among others. Her translation of Cristina Rivera Garza’s The Iliac Crest was published with the Feminist Press in October 2017.
Noelle de la Paz is a writer and literary translator. Her work appears in The Recluse, Southwest Review, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere, and in the exhibitions Otherwise Obscured: Erasure in Body and Text (Franklin Street Works) and Boulevard of Ghosts (Local Project). She was a 2021/22 Emerge–Surface–Be Fellow at The Poetry Project and has also received support from Brooklyn Poets and the Queens Council for the Arts.
