Editing starts on In the Swarm, the first fiction feature directed by Óscar Bernàcer
- Pablo Molinero and Cristina Fernández Pintado lead the ensemble cast in a dystopian film about community, power and freedom, reflecting human contradictions
Post-production has now begun on In the Swarm, the first fiction feature by documentary maker (The Recipe for Balance [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Óscar Bernàcer
film profile], El hombre que embotelló el sol) and television series producer (Una vida Bárbara) Óscar Bernàcer.
This rural thriller about an alternative society, shot last spring on location in the Valencia region, stars Pablo Molinero (seen in the series The Plague [+see also:
interview: Alberto Rodríguez and Rafae…
series profile], and more recently in Pet Peeves [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Javier Polo
film profile] and The Story of Us [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Helena Taberna
film profile]) and Cristina Fernández Pintado (Things to Do Before You Die [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). They are supported by María Maroto, Pablo Derqui (Los renglones torcidos de Dios [+see also:
trailer
film profile], this year in the series The Nameless [+see also:
series review
trailer
interview: Pau Freixas
series profile]), Marta Belenguer (La casa [+see also:
film review
film profile]), Jordi Aguilar (also in La casa), Glòria March (La buena letra [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Àngel Fígols (Things to do Before You Die), Elías Hwidar (Balearic [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ion de Sosa
film profile]), Abdelatif Hwidar, and June Bernàcer Martínez; and with the special collaboration of Núria Herrero, Neus Asensi, Sergio Caballero, and La María, a singer and composer who fuses tradition and avant-garde.
According to the synopsis, in the darkness of the hive, the rules governing bee society are inflexible: everyone works for everyone else, everyone has a job to do, and everyone helps everyone else. Together, the bees form a superior entity that protects them: the swarm. What is the life of a worker bee worth? A single individual has no right to endanger the subsistence of the whole group. There is no place here for selfish reasoning such as one's own happiness. Those who put the hive in danger pay for it with their lives.
As Óscar Bernàcer explains, "In the Swarm poses a current moral dilemma through a dystopia so close to home that it sends shivers down the spine. To what extent are we willing to give up our freedom for the common good, to live in an idealised, fairer, and safer space? This is a universal story about power and freedom." The directors confirm that, in these turbulent times of uncertainty and fear of the future, In the Swarm transports the viewer to the small rural area of Malpàs, a utopia we have all dreamed of at some point. In the words of the co-screenwriter – together with Jordi Juan Martínez – Joana M Ortueta, it is "a place where the audience would like to live, until the main character uncovers the dark side of this apparent paradise. The story continues to darken imperceptibly until the need to escape permeates everything.”
In the Swarm is being produced by Nakamura Films, Maqueta Films and Corte y Confección de Películas, with Araceli Isaac Delso and Núria Domenech as executive producers. It is also supported by the Institut Valencià de Cultura, in collaboration with Netflix, RTVE, À Punt and CREA SGR, and with funding from the ICO. In Spain it will be distributed by A Contracorriente Films, and international sales will be handled by Feelsales.
(Translated from Spanish)
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