Pete Ohs works as a director, producer, writer, editor, and cinematographer. He has produced and directed five feature films in the past five years. In 2025, he was at Sundance with OBEX, a fantasy adventure feature he produced, co-wrote and shot. This was followed by The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick, a genre-bending horror satire he directed, co-wrote and shot.

Here, Pete joins us to discuss Erupcja, a “foreign film” experiment that was produced with a light outline and shot chronologically in Warsaw, Poland. A volcanic eruption strands Bethany (Charli xcx) and her soon-to-be fiancé, Rob (Will Madden) in Warsaw, Poland. Taking the explosive event as a sign, she reunites with her childhood friend, Nel (Lena Góra), and embarks on a European adventure that forces her to confront the pains and pleasures of growing up.

Pete discusses his creative process of being in tune with his locations, cast, and crew, particularly the collaboration with Charli xcx that influenced the way the story was told. 

My way of making is all about just being really present and really trying to react to what the universe is providing, what is actually in front of us, what resources, what people, what is happening in the world. The location becomes a character, but it becomes everything. The reason I’m filming it the way I am, the reason it’s handheld, the reason we’re doing this aspect ratio, the reason it has the energy that it does, is because of the architecture of Warsaw, the architecture that I’m drawn to, which is this 1970s communist-era stuff that was built that makes the city literally feel like it’s kind of in the 1970s. And so then I’m wanting to make art that also evokes that sort of feeling. By being in conversation with the city, it results in what we see.

1-2 Special releases Erupcja In Theaters on April 17, 2026.

Follow our interviewee online:
Pete Ohs Website, IMDb, Instagram

Follow our interview host online:
Danny Jarabek

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Credits:

  • Theme music: Eugene Rocco Utley & Karl Vincent
  • Artwork: Danny Jarabek
  • Editor: Danny Jarabek
  • Assistant Producer: Evan Miller