Feel Sales Acquires Argentine Family Drama ‘The Cottage’ Ahead of Berlin’s European Film Market (EXCLUSIVE)
Spanish independent sales company Feel Sales has acquired “The Cottage,” Argentine filmmaker Silvina Schnicer’s debut solo feature, and will present it to interested buyers at this year’s European Film Market.
“The Cottage,” “La Quinta” in Spanish, follows an upper-middle-class family in Argentina as they retreat to their vacation home for winter break, only to discover signs of an intruder. The family patriarch, Rudi, tries to convince the other homeowners in the community that Tomás, the gatekeeper, is to blame and should be fired. Meanwhile, the neighborhood kids, unsupervised by their parents, engage in mischief that escalates into an unspeakable act. As the family grapples with the consequences, they are forced to bury a dark secret about the horrors committed by their 12-year-old son.
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Feel Sales’ Luis Collar and Yeniffer Fasciani said of their latest acquisition: “We found in ‘The Cottage’ a fresh and unexpected experience. This story explores the duality of human nature from an unconventional perspective: kids. Through an immersive narrative in codes of suspense, the film plays with innocence and darkness, revealing how internal and external worlds blend even in the minds of the youngest. It is a carefully crafted film, filled with tension and fear, yet with the potential to reach even pre-teen audiences by offering profound content and new experience, unlike anything they typically have available.”
Schnicer, who co-directed several successful titles, including “Carajita” and “Tigre,” brings her unique vision to “The Cottage.” The film’s production companies include Brava Cine, Werner Cine, Villano Producciones, Casa Na árvore, and Palmeras Salvajes. The cast features Valentin Salaverry, Milo Lis, Emma Cetrángolo, Sebastián Arzeno, Cecilia Rainero, Dario Levy, Juliana Muras, and Alejandro Gigena.
In a recent interview with Variety, Schnicer discussed the inspiration behind “The Cottage” and the challenges of directing her first solo feature. “The Cottage is a very personal project inspired by my own life experiences and my family,” she said. “It really feels like my first film. Working in pairs establishes another dynamic: a shared responsibility for decision-making. However, the experience of directing alone for the first time led me to have a completely different learning experience from the one I had lived before.”
Among the most welcome surprises in “The Cottage” are its suspense and horror undertones, which were initially unintended and only became a part of the film after shooting had begun. “Honestly, the elements of the genre within the film were found once we had started filming, and they continued to appear and build in post-production,” Schnicer revealed. “Elements such as suspense, or even some of the ‘timid’ horror elements, were not only generated from the scenes as we filmed but, above all, from the sound design.”
Last November, “The Cottage” was screened in competition at the Mar del Plata and Marrakech Film Festivals, and it earned a special jury award at the latter. During its development, the film received several prizes and government incentives, including support from INCAA (Argentina), the Minority Co-production Fund of the Ministry of Culture (Chile), ANCINE (Brasil), ICEC (Spain), and the Ibermedia Program. The film also participated in various labs and development courses, such as the Ibero-American Film Projects Development Course in Madrid and the Filmmaker Lab within the framework of TIFF.
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