Even though I wasn't a fan of the filmmaker's first piece, I decided to watch another one of his shorts and ended up binging his whole filmography. "Alterado" is his most daring and profound work to date. Fieschi has come to develop a sort of "jigsaw puzzle" style, he gives us the pieces we need to understand the story, but it is our job to piece it together. The audience has to go the extra mile and interact further, whether by rewatching the movie, pausing at a certain point, and so on. I just love an artist not willing to produce disposable content!
"Alterado" is about Lauro, an anxiety-ridden man who had to create an alternate narrative, to be able to cope and digest his horrible childhood trauma. Initially unable to recognize that his big brother assaulted him when they were young, Lauro thinks he's in love with him, and he's figuring out a way to confess this "love" to his brother without the rest of their family finding out. Knowing the perpetrator is currently around another child (Lauro's nephew), he hacks into his brother's computer and gains access to gigabytes of pornography, which he can now present to the authorities so he can take his brother to jail. This revelation awakes ire in Lauro's family, they go in denial mode and turn their backs on him (common for sexual assault survivors). However, by being in touch with this alternate version of himself, Lauro gains the determination he so desperately needs, comes out on the other side alive, no longer apprehensive. Beautiful!