FACTS

Original Title

la pasajera

Genre

Horror

Production Year

2021

Country of Origin

Spain

Language Spoken

Spanish

Length

90 mins
Festival

Sitges (world premiere)

Directors

Raul Cerezo, Fernando Gonzalez
Scriptwriter
Luis Sánchez-Polack, based on the idea of Raúl Cerezo

Cast

Ramiro Blas, Cecilia Suarez, Paula Gallego, Cristina Alcazar

Production Companies
Person’s films, la Dalia Films, Antídoto Films

Producers
José Luis Rancaño

Local Release Date
10. February 2022

SYNOPSIS

A group of strangers sharing a van have their trip abruptly interrupted when the driver accidently hits a woman hiking in the middle of the night. They decide to take her to the hospital, but on the way quickly learn that she is not in need of a hospital and that they shouldn’t have let her in at all.

Directors

FERNANDO GÓMEZ

director

Director and screenwriter. Madrid, 1984. Trained as an aeronautical engineer, he founded Fanda Films in 2004 together with producer Niko Verona with whom he has made more than thirty short films. Having worked in comedy, thrillers, social film and documentaries, he has been able to explore a wide variety of narratives and characters. Fanda Films productions have been shown at hundreds of festivals, receiving dozens of national and international awards. Sharp and agile dialogues, extreme characters and strange and dystopian atmospheres, characterize the work of this prolific Spanish filmmaker. Highlighting his 3 nominations for Melie d’argent and his candidacy for the Goya for best fiction short film. As for feature films, he has written and directed Standard, winner of the Vanguard Comedy Award at the prestigious Austin film festival.

 

RAUL CEREZO

Director

Director, producer and screenwriter. Madrid, 1976. Founder of the genre film production company “Eye Slice Pictures”, alongside Helion Ramalho. Raúl Cerezo is a key and recognized figure in the world of short film and spanish horror. Cerezo has produced more than a hundred works and directed emblematic titles such as 8, winner of Melies D’argent and Paul Naschy awards at the Sitges Film Festival, among many other recognitions. His first feature comes with The Passenger, which he penned the original idea for. 

Producer's statement

Jose Luis Rancaño

  • Estándar de Fernando González Gómez (2019)
  • La odisea de Vasi de D. Valero y V. Papatheocharis (2019)
  • 27 Minutos de Fernando González Gómez (2019)
  • Fishbone de Adán Aliaga (2017)
  • La noche que mi madre mató a mi padre de Inés París (2016)

“When I finished reading the script for The Passenger, I had no doubts: it was the film that our production company had been waiting for. The Passenger is a special and different kind of project. It is like a great, fantastic story, starring iconic and multifaceted characters who are not what they appear to be, and who will take the spectator on a frenetic journey, where nightmares and roars of laughter are blurred together at the pace of a pasodoble. The Passenger invites the spectator to go on an enjoyable journey with us for ninety minutes. The Producer can assure you that you won’t regret it.”

Directors' statement

“The film’s narrative microcosmos is a shared car: a place where friends and enemies have no alternative but to co-exist on a long journey. The relationships between characters will prove crucial when they are forced to survive when a deadly enemy appears. We wanted to play with the language of cinema and suspense and make a film where something as small as a van leads to something much bigger. By developing an intense atmosphere of suspense and developing the relationship between the two main characters, we have created an adventure experienced by characters who do not know each other and who will learn to love each other when united by an unsustainable situation. The challenge of shooting in a single vehicle generates a creative experience where suggestion and developments outside the field of action will be prominent in the narrative, stimulating and provoking the imagination of the spectator. The film is narrated in a light but firm tone, and always on the basis of respect for the genre and on the premise that the spectator constantly enjoys the film. After meeting each character, the spectator undergoes an amazing experience: in the dark interior of a van, anyone can fall into the clutches of The Passenger. Everything occurs within a structure of suspense based on extensive sequences full of tension, where the audience enjoys the film whilst all along being terrified.”

CAST

Ramiro Blas

Blasco

Ramiro Blas was born on September 27, 1966 in Mar del Plata, Argentina. He is an actor, known for Vis a vis (2015), La fuga (2012) and Blackwood (2018).

Cristina Alcázar

Lidia

Known for Piensa, Observa y Respira (2013), Cachorro (I)(2017), Catarsis (2004), Road to Santiago (2009).

Cecilia Suárez

Mariela

Cecilia Suárez started her acting career at the Theater Faculty of the Illinois State University (USA) in 1991. She was grantee of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company. She debuted in films in 1999 in Sexo, pudor y lágrimas. 

Paula Gallego

Marta

Born in Madrid (2004) Known for one of the most popular series in the tv in Spain, Cuéntame.

Behind the scenes

LevelK Team

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