Their apartment functions as a character apart, stuffed with artifacts, books, and posters that tell you where they’re from; they are children of the failed revolution of the 1960s, who still keep a poster reading “Nix On War” hanging in one of their rooms. Their idealism is a victim of their demons. And the film’s most heartbreaking and compelling demonstration is that the worst demons we have to face are the ones we conjure ourselves. Until disease begins to get smart with us, compounding the terror we are never fully prepared for.

We leave “Vortex” feeling cleansed by the fire.

Now showing in theaters.