Andrés Kaiser’s found-footage thriller “Feral,” a Fipresci and Best Mexican Feature winner after its world premiere at the Los Cabos Film Festival, has been picked up by U.K. sales company One Eyed Films in the run-up to this year’s Ventana Sur.
A participant at last year’s Ventana Sur Blood Window and Impulso Morelia works in progress sections, the feature is an isolated Oaxaca mountain cabin in the woods-set mockumentary which mixes found footage and witness interviews to tell the story of a defrocked clergyman who lives with three “savage” children he discovered chained in a nearby cave.
“We think that documentaries are real,” explained Kaiser. “That they have nothing to do with fiction. This perception of genre is the mechanism by which ‘Feral’ projects the most hidden horror of the human species: the deep ocean of chaos and darkness that awaits after the encounter with our wild essence.”
As the footage, past and present, comes together, lines blur and it becomes difficult to tell who the real savages are. The children, devoid of social contact through their formative years, alternate between animal-like fear and anger, and a more curious nature recognizable as human. Meanwhile, the monk’s past is uncovered while his motivations are called into question.
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One Eyed Films boast an international catalog of indie cinema, focusing heavily on genre films. Their collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror films have racked up awards at major genre festivals such as Korea’s Bucheon, Mexico’s Morbido, and Catalonia’s Sitges and a host of others as well as broader-audience festivals like Rotterdam, BFI London and Karlovy Vary.
In a statement, One Eyed Films explained the allure of “Feral” saying: “We found great appeal in the alluring, spellbinding mystery woven by fascinating found footage narrative trying to uncover events occurred in the depths of a remote forest clearing in Oaxaca involving religion, catechism, superstitions and the quest for the meaning of nature or nurture in humanity.”
“Feral” was co-produced by Latino production company Itaca Films and Nicole Maynard Pinto and Kaisér at Cine Feral.