After its world premiere last July 16 at FANTASIA 2022, Montreal, where its lead, Zorion Eguileor, won Best Actor in the Cheval Noir competition, THE ELDERLY, the second film made together by Raúl Cerezo and Fernando González Gómez, after The Passenger, is currently in the official section of the Fantastic Fest, Austin, the most important genre festival in the USA, whose 17th edition runs till September 29. In October, THE ELDERLY will be in the Official Competition Section of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia – Sitges 2022 – the world’s premier fantastic film festival, whose 55th edition will run this year from October 6 to 16. The film will also have its European premiere there on Thursday October 13.
Rosa commits suicide, which is the catalyst for the progressive physical and mental deterioration of Manuel, her elderly husband. Mario, his son, decides to bring him to live with his family, despite the fierce opposition of his new wife, who’s expecting a baby.
Naia, his teenage granddaughter, is the only one who trusts Manuel, whose dementia is getting worse and worse by the day. The family’s new living situation will continue to go rapidly downhill, until it literally becomes a matter of life and death, leading to a dramatic denouement, which will take place on the hottest night of the century. Zorion Eguileor (El Hoyo, Best Film at Sitges, 2019) is the lead in THE ELDERLY, and won Best Actor at the Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal, one of the biggest and most important fantastic film festivals in the world, where the film had its world premiere. Shot over six weeks between Madrid and Navarre, THE ELDERLY, a horror story written by Raúl Cerezo, Javier Trigales and Rubén Sánchez Trigos, was, originally, Raul Cerezo’s project. It emerged victorious from the pitchbox at the 49th edition of Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival. Raúl Cerezo confessed after hearing the news: “Sitges has been my home for many years now. I was lucky to be part of its programming for several years, and even to win awards there, but I’d never been in the Official Competition Section. Apart from the immense joy I feel, I know that this is great for the film and my career, because not only is Sitges the best genre festival on the planet, it is light years ahead of the second best. I am overwhelmed and extremely grateful. I am going to enjoy it a lot,” he concluded. For Fernando González Gómez, Sitges “is the place where we are happy, and being there for a second year in a row with the second film we have directed together is a dream, a gift we are going to enjoy. I am nervous, and moved, and eager to share our work with the festival’s demanding audience, and we hope to jolt consciences, make stomachs turn, and leave no one indifferent. I can’t wait to get on the train in Atocha and start heading towards the Catalan coast.”
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T H E E L D E R L Y is the second project undertaken by González Gómez and Cerezo after co-directing The Passenger, a fantasy horror story that had its World Premiere at last year’s Sitges. After its commercial release in Spain, the film has enjoyed never-ending success and is proving to be one of the genre films of the year. It has been sold to over 25 countries for showing, including the United States, in addition to having participated in many national and international festivals. It is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray.
