EXCLUSIVE: Susi Sánchez, a veteran actress of Spanish-language cinema with credits like Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In, has signed on to star in El Mal Hijo, the debut feature directed by actor Jaime Lorente.
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Salvador S. Molina, who also penned the screenplay, and is produced by AF, which presented the project to buyers in Cannes.
The project is scheduled to begin shooting this year. The story tells the story of a grandmother (Sánchez) and her eleven-year-old grandson, Rubén, (Abel de la Fuente). The plot opens as the pair begin a journey through an endless field of lemon trees and cochineal-infested prickly pears. There, the grandmother wants to show him something no one else has seen: inside an old farm shed, Pascuala appears to have her own son held captive.
The synopsis reads: The victim of a family torn apart by hatred, and a tangle of problems and resentment, Rubén is simply trying to understand where he comes from as he leaves behind the last days of his childhood.
Christian Checa (On the Fringe) will portray the adult Rubén, ten years later, as he faces the return of a father who arrives at the worst possible moment, trying to fix the unfixable.
Sánchez is a two-time Goya award winner. Her most notable roles include Queen Isabella the Catholic in Mad Love (Juana la Loca). She has starred in several Pedro Almodóvar films (The Skin I Live In, I’m So Excited!, Julieta, Pain and Glory), as well as in the Baztán Trilogy adaptations (The Invisible Guardian, The Legacy of the Bones, Offering to the Storm).
She won the Best Actress Goya in 2019 for Sunday’s Illness and the Goya for Best Supporting Actress in 2023 for Lullaby.