‘La ermita’, the new horror film by the director of ‘Cerdita’, has been presented in Cannes by Filmax and the Sitges Festival

Last Sunday May 21 at lunchtime, the Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival was conquered by fantastic cinemain a double bill that first packed Sala Palais K, and then did the same in the Fantastic Pavilion and in which it was programmed the presentation of the new film by Carlota Pereda after ‘Cerdita’: ‘La ermita’.

The Fantastic 7 initiative, an alliance of seven leading festivals united by their commitment to genre cinema, celebrated 5 years of life at the Marché du Film, within the framework of the Cannes Film Festival. The event, sponsored this year by Álex de la Iglesiabrought together representatives of the Sitges Festival, Bucheon, Cairo, Guadalajara, New Zealand, SXSW and Tallinn.

The Sitges Festival selection was ‘La ermita’, the long-awaited new film by Carlota Pereda, director of ‘Cerdita’. The project, produced by Filmax, has been defined by its own author as “a film that reproduces the aura of those titles that made me fall in love with cinema“.

“When Laura Fernández proposed the story of ‘La ermita’ to me, we hadn’t shot ‘Cerdita’ yet,” recalls Pereda. “There was something in the script by Albert Bertran Bas and Carmelo Viera that resonated with me and that brutally connected with my own experience as a daughter and as a mother and decided to develop it with them. So, in a sense, it can be said that it is a very personal story. I repeat with my closest team core, which has always been with me, and with actresses like Belén Rueda and Loreto Mauleón. Thus, as a family, we are not in a hurry to expose ourselves, to show ourselves vulnerable. Because ‘The hermitage’ is a horror story, yes, but above all, it is the story of how difficult it is to be a mother and daughter and how, sometimes, we do not understand each other until we are adults, as in any ghost story, until it’s too late. Or maybe it’s not.”

“Emma wants to learn to communicate with the spirit of a girl who has been trapped in a hermitage for centuries. and that’s why she tries to convince Carol, an incredulous and false medium to help her,” says the official synopsis. “Contacting with the spirit will help her stay together with her sick mother when she dies. What Carol doesn’t suspect is that Emma really has ‘the gift’ and that if the girl continues to try to use it without her help, she will put her little life in danger.”

The hermitage will hit Spanish cinemas on November 17, 2023presumably after going through the Official Section of the Sitges Festival a month before.