Piggy (2022 film)

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[1]
Countries	Spain France
Language	Spanish
Budget	€2.5 million
Box office	$409,224[2]

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).

Sara, labelled Cerdita^[a] 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.

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.^[7][8]

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.^[8] Rita Noriega took over cinematography duties.^[9]

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.^[10][9][11] The white color C15, a staple of rural Spain, prominently features in the film.^[12]

Filming began on 17 June 2021 and wrapped in late July.^[13][8] Shooting locations included the village of Villanueva de la Vera (Extremadura) and its surroundings.^[13]

Piggy had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2022.^[3][14][15] It had its UK premiere at the FrightFest on 29 August 2022.^[16] It was presented in the 'Tabakalera-Zabaltegui' section of the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2022.^[17] Distributed by Filmax,^[15] it was theatrically released in Spain on 14 October 2022.^[18] Likewise, the film, distributed by Backup Media, was set for a 19 October 2022 release in French cinemas,^[6] later rescheduled to 2 November 2022.^[19]

Magnet Releasing acquired North American rights,^[20] whereas Vertigo Releasing did so for the United Kingdom and Ireland.^[21] Other distribution deals include those with Alamode (Germany), Praesens (Switzerland), I Wonder (Italy), Nonstop Entertainment (Scandinavia and Baltics) and ADS Service (Hungary).^[21] 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.^[22]

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."^[23][24]

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.^[25] 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.^[25] 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.^[26]

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

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

• Piggy at IMDb