Many of us experienced a unique form of torment throughout our adolescent years. Bullies would gang up on you if you didn’t fit the stereotype: if you didn’t have the “cool” haircut or clothing, if your parents didn’t have the “cool” automobile, or if you just didn’t look like everyone else. For example, this is the situation of the protagonist in Piggy, a brutal coming-of-age film directed by Carlota Pereda. We are pleased to announce that the full-length feature film adaptation of the short film Piggy will debut in cinemas and on demand beginning on October 14—just in time for the Halloween season! Piggy chronicles the narrative of its protagonist, Sara (Laura Galán), as she endures the beautiful but stifling heat of the Spanish countryside.
Sara’s home life is just as emotionally and mentally torturous as her school life, where she is constantly tormented by the other girls. Sara, a teenager, has a very lonely existence since neither her parents nor her younger brother can show any compassion for her or be honest with her. After a particularly hot day, the young woman decides to go to the neighbourhood pool to cool down, but her life is permanently altered when she is verbally and physically abused by three adolescent females. In addition to taking the brunt of her friends’ attacks, Sara must contend with the eerie presence of a stranger in the sea. Sara decides she’s had enough and leaves home, but not before seeing the kidnapping of her assailants in the back of the weird man’s vehicle.
To aid the police and her parents in tracking down her tormentors, or to embark on her own path of revenge and redemption? This is the moral dilemma that Sara must now face. Piggy, which has been receiving rave reviews from both viewers and critics alike, is an official selection for the 2022 Sundance Film Festival as well as the 2022 Fanatic Fest. A short film made in 2018 (which won several awards) has evolved into a much larger vehicle for Pereda. Las Rubias, the director’s 2016 short, and There Will Be Monsters, her terrifying supernatural 2020 short, both did well.
Piggy is guaranteed to convey its intended message because of the way it blends terrible (sadly daily) situations with a Hollywood spin. The cast also includes Richard Holmes, Carmen Machi, Irene Ferreiro, Camille Aguilar, Jose Pastor, Pilar Castro, Fernando Delgado-Hierro, and Claudia Salas, in addition to Galán. The movie, which Merry Colomer is producing, was written by Pereda as well. On October 14th, Piggy will be released in cinemas and on demand.