Butter on the Latch is the tale of an entangled female friendship, set in a real-life Balkan music camp in upstate New York, told with avant-garde flourishes and disturbing psycho-sexual undercurrents.
Sarah and Isolde are former friends who meet by chance at a music festival. Happy to be away from the urban life that has for too long defined them, in this mystical setting they embrace the lush natural surroundings, captured with a rare sensuous eye by Decker. The two build a close bond in this female utopia until tensions are strained when Steph, a male camper, arrives. As Sarah’s attraction to him becomes apparent, her bond with Isolde unravels. From here, the film becomes a phantasmagoria that recalls the work of David Lynch. Butter on the Latch boldly invites you to ‘feel’ your way through the drama and heralds a genuinely exciting new filmmaking talent.
Artist and filmmaker Chris Paul Daniels talks more about Josephine Decker’s work