Isaki Lacuesta is currently filming in Catalonia, after having shot a segment last winter, his new feature El fondo del lago (El fons de l'estany) with which he ventures into his most personal terrain to craft an emotional mystery story. The Golden Shell winner at San Sebastián for The Double Steps and Between Two Waters, and a Goya Award winner for One Year, One Night and Saturn Return, thus returns to fiction after the documentaries Flores para Antonio, presented last year at San Sebastián, and Flamenco Sketches, which will feature at this year’s edition (read news).

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Set in the town of Banyoles (in the province of Girona, where the director himself grew up) in 1989, the film follows Iván, a 13-year-old whose life changes when his best friend, Jan (15), disappears. While the whole town searches for him, only Iván can uncover the truth: the boy is hiding by the lake and refuses to go home. Over a few days stolen from the world, the two youngsters find freedom and celebrate their friendship, far from adult eyes. But when reality intrudes and their world shatters, they discover that the real monsters are not those that, according to legend, inhabit the dark waters of the town’s lake, but the ones waiting on the shore.

The film’s cast – which is stylistically akin to his earlier The Next Skin – is led by Àlex Brendemühl (Goya-nominated for Creatura and seen this year in Runner), Alba Guilera (who already worked with Lacuesta on the drama One Year, One Night and has appeared in The Teacher Who Promised the Sea and Dismantling an Elephant), Quim Àvila (who recently appeared in the film Another Man and in the series Ravalear: Not for Sale, co-directed by Lacuesta himself and Pol Rodríguez) and David Climent (also in Ravalear: Not for Sale, and now in Spanish cinemas with North to Paradise); it also introduces youngsters Aleix Sagrera (in his screen debut) and Lluc Miravete (L’home dels nassos, the miniseries The Map of Longing) in the lead roles.

The film’s producers Sandra Hermida, Belén Atienza and Juan Antonio Bayona (who has been bolstering his producer role after the success of Society of the Snow) state: “Drawing inspiration from an event he experienced in his adolescence and that has haunted him ever since, Isaki crafts a mystery as beautiful as it is terrifying, into which he pours all his talent and sensitivity as never before. On this journey he has the support of an extraordinary artistic team and returns to his beloved Banyoles to shoot. We are immensely proud to be part of this project.”

El fondo del lago is produced by Sandra Hermida, Belén Atienza and JA Bayona, with the participation of 3Cat, TVE, Movistar Plus, HBO Max and Netflix, as well as the support of the ICAA, the ICEC, the Diputación de Girona and Eurimages. Bteam will release the film in Spanish cinemas in 2027.