In a remote mountain village, two sisters grow up at the mercy of their abusive mother. A terrible accident happens when Šarlota escapes into the woods with her sister Tamara. Otyla, a Roma woman is blamed for the girls’ disappearance and accused of witchcraft. Twenty years later, Šarlota unexpectedly shows up in the village. As she digs into her past, the locals grow suspicious. Only a young and eccentric herbalist, Mira, is willing to befriend her. When the animals in the village start to fall ill, the locals accuse Šarlota of conjuring Otyla's spirit.

Carrying an indelible childhood trauma, Šarlota returns to her secluded rural hometown in Slovakia. However, the villagers are from welcoming, except for the young herbalist, Mira, who approaches her. As the animosity from the men in the village intensifies, and with the onset of an illness affecting the village animals, the residents begin to suspect that Otyla, a Romani woman living on the outskirts of the village, has cast a spell on Šarlota’s soul. Tereza Nvotovà’s second feature film, Nightsiren, adds a feminist perspective to the violent patriarchal misogyny dominating the secretive rural village. As the film unfolds, images of Šarlota, Mira, and Otyla overlap, creating an enigmatic collage of resistance. This film stands out for its fresh approach and reinterpretation of folk horror, and it won the Golden Leopard in the Cineasti del Presente competition at the 2022 Locarno Film Festival. (Jin PARK)