The Orphanage
Spain, 2007, 100 Minute Running Time
Additional Countries: Mexico
Genre/Subjects: Family Issues, Foreign, Horror, Social Issues, Thriller
Language: Spanish English Sub-Titles
In an orphanage by the sea, a little girl named Laura spent the best years of her childhood nurtured by an affectionate staff and surrounded by other orphans whom she loved like brothers and sisters. Now, 30 years later, she is returning with her husband Carlos and seven-year-old son Simón to the stately manor that holds such a special place in her heart. Laura and her husband, Carlos, plan to renovate the now-abandoned, dilapidated orphanage and reopen it as a center for sick and disabled children.
Yet something sinister lurks in the darkened corridors of her former happy home – and it's finding expression in Simón's increasingly ominous behavior. It's not long before Laura, too, is consumed with ineffable dread – only to be countered by Carlos, who imagines their son is simply craving attention from his distracted parents. But when Simón disappears during opening-day festivities, Laura, finally convinced her family's survival might be at stake, sets out to solve the mystery of the orphanage, plunging headlong into the past – and into a netherworld where the dead correspond with the living.
With the backing of producer Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth), director Juan Antonio Bayona and gifted first-time screenwriter Sergio Sánchez deliver an elegant, shivery ghost story that plumbs the shadowy depths of human longing and regret.
Sponsored by The Onion
In cooperation with: The Mexican Cultural Center
DIRECTOR: J.A. Bayona
Producer: Álvaro Augustín, Joaquín Padro, Mar Targarona, Guillermo del Toro
Editor: Elena Ruiz
Screenwriter: Sergio G. Sánchez
Cinematographer: Óscar Faura
Principal Cast: Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Geraldine Chaplin, Montserrat Carulla
The following short films will screen before this film...
-
USA
,
2006
,
8 min.
Director:
Paul Hough
This award-winning short tells the tale of 12-year old Twing, who sits at her ailing Grandma's bedside, fearing that Death will take her. Then she finds hope in a mysterious stranger with one leg....
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