Film Factory Introduces Mar Targarona, Rodar y Rodar’s ‘The Cuckoo’s Curse’ to Buyers (EXCLUSIVE)

Emiliano De Pablos
·2 min read

Barcelona-based Film Factory Entertainment has acquired international sales rights to horror-thriller “El Cuco” (“The Cuckoo’s Curse”), the latest film by “The Photographer of Mauthausen” and “Two” producer-director Mar Targarona, set up at top Spanish genre auteur house Rodar y Rodar.

Vicente Canales’ Film Factory, one of the biggest sales forces in the Spanish-speaking world, is presenting “The Cuckoo’s Curse” to international buyers with a first promo at this week’s Cannes Film Market.

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Just finished shooting in Barcelona and Germany’s The Black Forest, “The Cuckoo’s Curse” is a Spain-Germany co-production that teams Rodar y Rodar with Barry Films, a Berlin, L.A. and Zurich-based company led by producers Benito and Wolfgang Mueller (“The Perfect Enemy,” “The Whistleblower”).

“The Cuckoo’s Curse” toplines Belén Cuesta (“Money Heist,” “The Endless Trench”), Rainer Reiners (“Blood Red Sky,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel”), Jorge Suquet (“Elite,” “Libertad”) and Hildegard Schroedter (“Babylon Berlin”).

Written by Alfred Pérez-Fargas and Robert Danès (“La Unidad,” “The Photographer of Mauthausen”) narrates a thriller story with supernatural horror touches.

The film follows Sebas and Anna, a couple expecting a baby, who this year are going to take a different kind of vacation. They’ve decided to swap houses with Hans and Olga, an older German couple who they met via a website.

At first, things seemed to go smoothly. But the house swap gradually turns into a veritable nightmare for Sebas and Anna when they discover that Hans and Olga not only want to swap houses, but also their lives.

Producer of two milestone titles of Spain’s genre auteur scene – J.A. Bayona’s “The Orphanage” and Guillem Morales’ “Julia’s Eyes”- via Rodar y Rodar, Targarona has built her own directorial career on suspense thrillers. “The Cuckoo’s Curse” marks her fifth feature as director.

“The Photographer of Mauthausen” (2018), toplining Mario Casas, earned four nominations for Spain’s Goya Awards. A Netflix pickup, “Dos” became last December the fifth most watched film in the streamer’s worldwide ranking of non-English speaking productions.

“At its core, ‘The Cuckoo’s Curse’ is an archetypal horror tale with witches and haunted houses deep in the Black Forest. But far from gothic obscurantism, it is a luminous and aesthetic thriller. A terrifying look at everyday life and the passage of time, about how, under a patina of perfection, danger lurks,” Targarona said.

“We are pleased to once again join a project by Mar Targarona, one of the filmmakers with the greatest thriller stamp on the Spanish scene. We are convinced that ‘The Cuckoo’s Curse’ will have a wide international career,” said Vicente Canales at Film Factory Entertainment.

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