25/02/2025 - The Spanish cinema legend, flanked by Daniel Hendler, leads the cast of the Argentinian filmmaker’s debut feature, an exploration of disturbing psychological games

Spanish cinema icon Carmen Maura stars in Crazy Old Lady, a psychological horror flick written and directed by Argentinian filmmaker Martín Mauregui. This marks Mauregui's directorial debut, following a successful career as a screenwriter.

Crazy Old Lady unfolds as a claustrophobic psychological thriller centred on Pedro, who receives an urgent request from his ex-girlfriend to take care of her deeply senile mother, Alicia. What initially seems like a simple favour soon transforms into a nightmarish experience as Pedro finds himself caught in Alicia's disturbing psychological games. Desperate to escape, Pedro realises that Alicia will not let him go so easily.

The Cannes-, Goya- and César-winning Maura, best known for her roles in Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown [+see also:
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film profile] and Volver [+see also:
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interview: Agustín Almodóvar
interview: Carmen Maura
interview: Pedro Almodóvar
interview: Pénélope Cruz
film profile], brings her talent to the complex role of Alicia. Uruguayan actor Daniel Hendler, winner of the Berlinale Silver Bear for Lost Embrace [+see also:
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film profile] and known for his long-standing collaboration with director Daniel Burman, plays the unwitting caregiver whose experience quickly turns terrifying.

Writer-director Martín Mauregui, best known for his screenplays for Carancho [+see also:
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interview: JA Bayona
film profile], and as it happens, the renowned Spanish filmmaker has also boarded the project as a co-producer.

Bayona commented on this new collaboration: “Martín Mauregui’s script hooked me from the very beginning. He masterfully uses the genre to immerse the audience in the perverse delirium of a woman with a past as dark as certain recent events in her country’s history. As a producer, this project is also fulfilling my lifelong dream of working with the incredible Carmen Maura.”

Filming took place in Buenos Aires and Capilla del Señor, among other locations, in 2024, and the film is expected to be completed by early April. While an official release date has not yet been announced, worldwide sales are expected to launch in 2025.

Crazy Old Lady, an Argentinian-Spanish co-production, is being produced by Juan Antonio Bayona and Belén Atienza (Pan’s Labyrinth [+see also:
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film profile]) for Películas La Trini, along with Gabriela Cárcova Krichmar for Primo Content, Ramón Campos for Bambú Producciones and Agustina Llambi Campbell for La unión de los ríos. The executive producers include Nicolás Pérez Veiga and Alfredo Pérez Veiga, with Ron Halpern and Leeana Lancashire overseeing the project for StudioCanal.