in filming
Mar Targarona directs this thriller written by Alfred Pérez-Fargas and Roger Danès
Mar Targarona (‘Dos’, ‘The Photographer from Mauthausen’, ‘Kidnapping’) is shooting ‘El Cuco’, a new thriller written by Alfred Pérez-Fargas and Roger Danès (‘La Unidad’, ‘La mort de Guillem’, ‘ The Mauthausen Photographer’). It is a suspense intrigue with overtones of supernatural terror starring Belén Cuesta (‘The Infinite Trench’, ‘The Paper House’, ‘Paquita Salas’) and Jorge Suquet (‘The Hunt’, ‘Elite’, ‘Libertad ‘).
‘El Cuco’ tells a story of aspirations, whose plot focuses on a young couple, Anna and Marc (Belén Cuesta and Jorge Suquet), who decide to exchange their house with a retired German couple, Hans and Olga -played by Rainer Reiners (‘Inventing Anna’, ‘The Mauthausen Photographer’) and Hildegard Schroedter (‘The Piano Teacher’, ‘Babylon Berlin’, ‘The Reader’) – with the intention of disconnecting from their lifestyle and routine.
The synopsis of the film tells how the vacations of Marc and Anna, eight months pregnant, will be different. They have decided to exchange their house for the summer with Hans and Olga, a retired German couple they met through a website. Despite the apparent calm at first, little by little, the house exchange turns into a real nightmare for Marc and Anna when they discover that Hans and Olga have other plans for them.
For the director, Mar Targarona, «there is something archetypal in this story, a certain flavor of the Grimm Brothers’ tales from the depths of the Black Forest, with its witches and folklore. The story recalls Hansel and Gretel walking towards that house made of candy that will catch them in a deadly trap. In this case, the candy is a large fireplace, open and bright spaces, advanced home automation, smart appliances. The aesthetic proposal is to flee from the gothic story, with its dark houses, its corridors with black walls, its nights full of nocturnal creatures and sinister branches in the form of claws. Our story must take place in a pleasant space, play with a diaphanous and diurnal terror that defies the conventions of the genre to reinterpret everyday life under a sinister gaze.
‘El Cuco’ is committed to presenting the viewer with suspense and existential fear, time and its relentless arrival. Mar Targarona, director and producer with experience in the theatrical, advertising, television and cinematographic media, directs her fifth feature film after films such as ‘The Photographer of Mauthausen’ (2018), with which she obtained four nominations for the Goya and nine nominations for the Gaudí Awards, or the most recent ‘Dos’ (2021), which on Netflix ranked number 5 in the world in viewings.
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