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Piggy
Theatrical release poster
Spanish	Cerdita
Directed by	Carlota Pereda
Screenplay by	Carlota Pereda
Based on	Piggy (short film) by Carlota Pereda
Produced by	Merry Colomer
Starring	Laura Galán Richard Holmes Carmen Machi Irene Ferreiro Camille Aguilar Claudia Salas Pilar Castro
Cinematography	Rita Noriega
Edited by	David Pelegrín
Music by	Olivier Arson
Production companies	Morena Films Backup Studio Cerdita AIE La Banque Postale Indéfilms
Distributed by	Filmax (Spain) Backup Films (France)
Release dates	24 January 2022 (2022-01-24) (Sundance) 14 October 2022 (2022-10-14) (Spain) 2 November 2022 (2022-11-02) (France)
Running time	100 minutes
Countries	Spain France
Language	Spanish
Budget	€2.5 million
Box office	$409,224

Piggy (Spanish: Cerdita) is a 2022 horror thriller film written and directed by Carlota Pereda, based on her 2019 short film of the same name. The cast, led by Laura Galán (who reprises her role from the short film), also features Richard Holmes, Carmen Machi, Claudia Salas, Irene Ferreiro, Camille Aguilar and Pilar Castro.

Piggy premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2022, before its theatrical release in Spain (14 October 2022) and France (2 November 2022). It earned six nominations to the 37th Goya Awards, winning Best New Actress (Galán).

Plot

Sara, labelled Cerdita by bully Maca and her friends Roci and Claudia, is an overweight teenage girl living in a small town in Extremadura. During the summer, Sara decides to visit the local swimming pool, only to be discovered by the three bullies, who steal her backpack and clothes. While walking home, she is harassed by a group of men and escapes onto a side road, where she sees a parked van which, initially unbeknownst to her, an unnamed man is using to kidnap her bullies. Claudia appears through the window, begging Sara to save her but Sara stands by in fear as the kidnapper locks gazes with her and silently leaves her towel before driving off. Sara returns home, deciding not to tell anyone about what happened.

News reaches town that the pool's lifeguard has been found dead, and the waitress has gone missing, along with the three girls. Sara is questioned by both her mother Asun and the local Civil Guard but denies having been at the pool that afternoon. She realises she can track her mobile phone, which the girls had stolen, to determine the whereabouts of the bullies. She steals her father's phone and ventures into the forest, where she locates her backpack and phone. She has a second encounter with the kidnapper, who warns her to be quiet and displays affection toward her before escaping. Family members of the missing girls, including Claudia's mother Elena, undertake their own investigation in the forest, during which they find the body of the missing waitress.

Pedro, a friend of the missing girls, introduces Sara to marijuana and reveals that he knows she was lying about not being at the pool. The townspeople suspect him to be responsible for the disappearance, and Sara promises to disclose what she saw if he is arrested. A hysterical Elena attacks Sara before Pedro reveals her truth to the crowd. Sara is taken in by the Civil Guard for questioning and begins to tell them the information she has, but the sudden onset of her period prevents further interrogation.

Unbeknownst to Sara and Asun, the kidnapper has come to their home and attacked Sara's father. Sara and Asun have a heated argument, during which the kidnapper incapacitates Asun and takes Sara to an abandoned warehouse. There, Sara discovers Roci and Claudia, who are still alive but have been gagged and are hanging by their wrists. She attempts to untie them, but the kidnapper returns before she can do so. She discovers Maca's decomposing body and is found by the kidnapper, who embraces her and tries to get her to kill the girls. She instead attacks him, and he accidentally fires his shotgun, blowing off Claudia's hand. Sara kills the kidnapper by biting a chunk out of his neck. She then picks up the shotgun and contemplates killing her former bullies, but instead shoots the ropes suspending them. She leaves, encountering Pedro on a motorbike, and rides with him back to town.

Cast

• Laura Galán as Sara
• Richard Holmes as El desconocido
• Carmen Machi as Asun
• Claudia Salas as Maca
• Irene Ferreiro as Claudia
• Camille Aguilar [fr] as Roci
• José Pastor [it] as Pedro
• Pilar Castro as Elena
• Julián Valcárcel as Tomás
• Fernando Delgado-Hierro as Juancarlitos
• Chema del Barco as Juan Carlos
• Stéphanie Magnin Vella as Rosa
• Lía Lois as Amaya
• Fred Tatien as Padre Roci
• José Vicente Moirón as Pedro

Production

Piggy, Carlota Pereda's feature film debut, is based on Pereda's short film of the same name, which won the Goya Award and the Forqué Award for Best Short Film in 2019 and stars Laura Galán, Paco Hidalgo, Elisabet Casanovas, Sara Barroso, Mireia Vilapuig and Jorge Elorza.

The feature film saw the return of the short film's lead actress (Laura Galán), and it was completed by Richard Holmes, Carmen Machi, Claudia Salas, Irene Ferreiro, Camille Aguilar, José Pastor, Pilar Castro and Chema del Barco. Rita Noriega took over cinematography duties.

A Spain–France co-production boasting a €2.5 million budget, the film was produced by Morena Films [es] alongside Backup Studio and Cerdita AIE in association with La Banque Postale and Indéfilms, with the participation of RTVE and Movistar+, and support from the Junta de Extremadura, Eurimages, the Creative Europe's MEDIA sub-programme and the Madrid's regional administration. The white color C15, a staple of rural Spain, prominently features in the film.

Filming began on 17 June 2021 and wrapped in late July. Shooting locations included the village of Villanueva de la Vera (Extremadura) and its surroundings.

Release

Piggy had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2022. It had its UK premiere at the FrightFest on 29 August 2022. It was presented in the 'Tabakalera-Zabaltegui' section of the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2022. Distributed by Filmax, it was theatrically released in Spain on 14 October 2022. Likewise, the film, distributed by Backup Media, was set for a 19 October 2022 release in French cinemas, later rescheduled to 2 November 2022.

Magnet Releasing acquired North American rights, whereas Vertigo Releasing did so for the United Kingdom and Ireland. Other distribution deals include those with Alamode (Germany), Praesens (Switzerland), I Wonder (Italy), Nonstop Entertainment (Scandinavia and Baltics) and ADS Service (Hungary). Predated by a sneak pre-screening on 4 October 2022, the film received a limited release in the United States in Alamo Drafthouse theatres on 7 October 2022, followed by a wider release elsewhere in the US a week later.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 100 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The website's consensus reads: "Brought hauntingly to life by Laura Galán's committed performance, Piggy deftly deploys genre thrills in service of sharp social commentary."

Jonathan Holland of Screen Daily wrote that the film "smartly mashes up thriller, rural drama and comedy elements into a lovingly-crafted, potently atmospheric, and thought-provoking whole — with bucketsful of horrible blood thrown in for good measure", and praised the "terrific" character work. Guy Lodge of Variety wrote that the film "sits at an unexpected intersection of artistic sensibilities, first recalling Catherine Breillat, then Brian De Palma, before taking a deep, bloody plunge into grindhouse territory toward its unsettling, ambiguous finale", comparing Sara's journey to Carrie's. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter presented the film as a "disturbing psychological drama" spiraling "into blood-drenched horror", considering that while Machi's performance is terrific, Galán's "riveting" performance is the one carrying the film.

Top ten lists

The film appeared on a number of critics' top ten lists of the best Spanish films of 2022:

• 3rd — Cadena SER (Elio Castro)
• 7th — El Periódico de Catalunya (critics)
• 10th — Cadena SER ('El cine en la SER' critics)
• 10th — El Mundo (Luis Martínez)

Accolades

See also

• List of Spanish films of 2022
• List of French films of 2022

Notes

1. Spanish: diminutive of cerda ('Female pig')

References

1. "Piggy - BBFC". British Board of Film Classification. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
2. "Piggy (2022)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
3. ^ Jones, Holly (23 January 2022). "Gutsy Sundance Horror Thriller 'Piggy' Broken Down by Director Carlota Pereda". Variety.
4. ^ Heredia, Sara (14 July 2022). "EXCLUSIVA 'Cerdita', el sangriento 'thriller' en un pueblo de Cáceres que triunfa en el extranjero: Descubre a las protagonistas". Sensacine.
5. ^ Feldberg, Isaac (27 January 2022). "Sundance 2022: Hatching, Piggy, Meet Me In the Bathroom". RogerEbert.com.
6. ^ Lépine, Cédric (26 September 2022). "FEFFS 2022 : "Piggy" (Cerdita) de Carlota Pereda". Mediapart.
7. "Somos Cine 'Cerdita', la ópera prima de Carlota Pereda, tendrá su estreno mundial en Sundance". rtve.es. 10 December 2021.
8. ^ "Finaliza en Extremadura el rodaje de 'Cerdita', primer largometraje de Carlota Pereda". Audiovisual451. 29 July 2021.
9. ^ "'Cerdita' de Carlota Pereda tendrá su estreno mundial en la sección Midnight del Festival de Sundance 2022". Audiovisual451. 10 December 2021.
10. Rivera, Alfonso (21 June 2021). "Carlota Martínez Pereda's Piggy to be turned into a feature". Cineuropa.
11. "'Cerdita', un rodaje sostenible y con la conciliación familiar como bandera". Audiovisual451. 3 August 2021.
12. Rebolledo, Matías G. (25 January 2015). ""Cerdita": panceta extremeña y terror en Sundance". La Razón.
13. ^ Boquerini (28 June 2021). "'Cerdita', un thriller rural lleno de tensión, venganza, miedo, polvo y sudor". El Correo. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
14. Galuppo, Mia; Siegel, Tatiana (9 December 2021). "Lena Dunham, Kanye West, Princess Diana Movies on Tap for Sundance". The Hollywood Reporter.
15. ^ Aller, María (10 December 2021). "La película 'Cerdita' contará con estreno mundial en 'Sundance'". Fotogramas.
16. Roberts, Becky (29 August 2022). "Piggy Movie Review". HorrorDNA.
17. "Cerdita, la película rodada en La Vera, triunfa en el Festival de San Sebastián". Canal Extremadura. 20 September 2022.
18. Aller, María (17 February 2022). "Las películas más esperadas del año 2022, ordenadas". Fotogramas.
19. Vargoz, Cécile (19 October 2022). "Backup Districup sort le fantastique Piggy en novembre". Box Office Pro.
20. Lang, Brent; Keslassy, Elsa (9 February 2022). "Magnet Releasing Nabs Carlota Pereda's 'Piggy' Following Sundance Debut (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety.
21. ^ Goodfellow, Melanie (23 February 2022). "Vertigo acquires UK and Ireland rights to Charades' Sundance title 'Piggy' (exclusive)". Screen Daily.
22. Latanzzio, Ryan (21 September 2022). "'Piggy' Trailer: The Unholy Alliance of 'Fat Girl' and 'Texas Chainsaw' That Wowed Sundance". IndieWire.
23. "Piggy". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
24. "Piggy". RottenTomatoes. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
25. ^ Lodge, Guy (25 January 2022). "'Piggy' Review: A Killer on the Loose Isn't the Scariest Thing in This Visceral, Upsetting Body-Image Horror". Variety.
26. Rooney, David (24 January 2022). "'Piggy' ('Cerdita'): Film Review | Sundance 2022". The Hollywood Reporter.
27. ^ Blanes, P; Romero, J.; Castro, E. (23 December 2022). "Las 10 mejores películas españolas de 2022 en un año espectacular para nuestro cine". Cadena SER.
28. "Las 10 mejores películas españolas de un 2022 para la historia". El Periódico de Catalunya. 19 December 2022.
29. Martínez, Luis (18 December 2022). "Las 10 mejores películas españolas de 2022". El Mundo.
30. "Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival unveils 2022 winners". deed.news. 11 September 2022. Archived from the original on 9 December 2022.
31. Taylor, Drew (27 September 2022). "Fantastic Fest Awards Winners: 'Piggy,' 'The Five Devils' and 'The Menu' Take Top Honors (Exclusive)". TheWrap.
32. "Le Festival du film fantastique se termine, Attachment repart avec l'Octopus d'or". Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace. 2 October 2022.
33. "La película 'Cerdita', premio Méliès de Oro en el Festival de Sitges". Europa Press. 11 October 2022.
34. "Cinespaña 2022 : " El agua " Violette d'Or". La Dépêche du Midi. 15 October 2022.
35. "Alcarràs', 'Cinco lobitos', 'As bestas' y 'Modelo 77', finalistas en los Premios Forqué". rtve.es. 7 November 2022.
36. "'As bestas' triunfa en los Forqué y pone al rojo vivo la lucha por los Goya". rtve.es. 17 December 2022.
37. Gualda, Lucía (29 January 2023). "Premios Feroz, en directo: los premiados a mejor película, mejor serie y mejor actriz y actor protagonistas". Vanitatis – via El Confidencial.
38. "'As bestas' y 'Cinco lobitos', las más nominadas a las Medallas CEC". Cine con Ñ. 15 December 2022.
39. Sánchez Sequera, Marcos (7 February 2023). "'As bestas' brilla en los Premios del Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos (CEC)". Audiovisual451.
40. "Ganadores de los Premios Goya 2023: lista completa de premiados en la gala". Cadena SER. 12 February 2023.
41. Aller, María (14 March 2023). "Premios Unión de Actores 2023: 'As bestas' y 'Cinco lobitos', las películas más premiadas". Fotogramas.
42. Hernández, Clara (9 March 2023). "El originalísimo traje de Amaia Salamanca: chaqueta deconstruida y minifalda con espiral estilo cuaderno". Woman. Prensa Ibérica.
43. Raygoza, Isabella (11 August 2023). "Bad Bunny & Rosalía Lead Rolling Stone En Español Award Nominations: Complete List". Billboard. Retrieved 6 September 2023.

External links

• Piggy at IMDb

• 2022 films
• 2022 directorial debut films
• 2022 horror thriller films
• 2022 independent films
• 2020s French films
• 2020s Spanish films
• 2020s Spanish-language films
• Features based on short films
• Films about bullying
• Films set in Extremadura
• Films shot in the province of Cáceres
• French films about revenge
• French horror thriller films
• French independent films
• Morena Films films
• Spanish films about revenge
• Spanish horror thriller films
• Spanish independent films
• Spanish-language French films
• Spanish-language horror films
• Spanish-language independent films