THE HIDDEN FACE

LA CARA OCULTA

By Andi BAIZ

DYNAMO PRODUCCIONES (COLOMBIA) - as FIN

Thriller - Completed 2010

A large house perched amongst the misty mountains of the one of the highest capitals in the world hides a secret, and sets the scene for a dark, suspenseful tale of love and possession.

    • Year of production
    • 2010
    • Genres
    • Thriller, Romance, Drama
    • Countries
    • COLOMBIA, SPAIN
    • Languages
    • SPANISH
    • Budget
    • 1 - 3 M$
    • Duration
    • 100 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Andi BAIZ
    • Writer(s)
    • Andi BAIZ, Hatem RUIZ-ZORRILA
    • EIDR
    • 10.5240/551A-A1D5-4A68-61FD-3BCD-E
    • Producer(s)
    • Cristian CONTI (DYNAMO CAPITAL), Rodrigo GUERRERO (DYNAMO CAPITAL), Stefan SCHMITZ (AVALON PRODUCTIONS)
    • Synopsis
    • Bogotá, Colombia. A mysterious house rests in the mountains. Two floors, lonely, sophisticated. An observant mirror in the main bedroom. Behind it, a hidden button. The button opens a heavy secret door that leads to a bunker, a secret room with a toilet, a bed, and food supplies. The other side of the mirror.
      This bunker was built by a German engineer who was part of the Third Reich and escaped to Colombia with his wife, Ruth. He built the bunker out of paranoia, always expecting the day in which his enemies would come for him.
      Ruth, at 90 and widowed, has decided to return to die in Berlin. The house is rented by a Spaniard couple. Adrián is the director of the Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra; Belén, his girlfriend, is a fashion designer. The couple occupies the house, and although Belén knows about the bunker, she has not told Adrián about it. She suspects he’s cheating on her, and out of pain she decides to test him and teach him a lesson. Dangerous mistake.
      Belén records a video with her digital camera, a message to tell Adrián she’s leaving him for someone else. She leaves the camera on the bed with a handwritten note that says “press play”. When Adrián returns home that night Belén hides in the bunker where she can see the bedroom through the mirror. Adrián finds the message and becomes mad and violent. Satisfied, Belén smiles. But when she tries to open the door she realizes that she’s locked inside. The real problem is that the bunker is a hermetic, isolated room. It is possible to hear and see from the inside of the bunker but from the outside nobody can see or hear what’s happening inside.
      Some days after Belén is gone Adrián meets Fabiana, a 25 year-old bar tender, and she quickly becomes Belén’s replacement. Adrián and Fabiana fall for each other and he invites her to live with him in the house. This becomes a torture for Belén who now witnesses, from the other side of the mirror, the new relationship and the sex. At the same time, Ramirez, Fabiana’s ex-boyfriend, a detective for the District Attorney’s Office, is in charge of investigating Belén’s disappearance, which he thinks might have been planned by Adrián. He wants Fabiana back and will do everything to get her away from Adrián.
      Belén desperately tries to make contact with the outside. She discovers that by hitting a water pipe inside the bunker she can propagate soft water waves in the wash-hand basin of the main bathroom. She can also turn the main bathroom’s shower water boiling hot, burning Fabiana’s body several times. To Fabiana these bizarre happenings seem to come from a supernatural force inhabiting the house and this frightens her.
      One day, Fabiana understands that the water waves are Belén’s signals and that she is locked up behind the mirror. Fabiana knows Belén is still in love with Adrián, and what her return would mean for the new relationship. Standing in front of the mirror Fabiana decides to leave Belén locked in the bunker.
      Inside Belén falls ill, loses all hope, starts to hallucinate. Outside Fabiana gets more confident and does what it takes to make Adrián forget the woman behind the mirror. Fabiana feels she found what she was looking for, she’s happy, she wants go to Spain and live there with Adrián, climb the social ladder.
      But little by little guilt begins to crawl around Fabiana. She can’t sleep. She finds out Adrián has no intention of taking her to Spain. She’s been just a passing prop for him. Just a nail to drive out another. Fabiana realizes her mistake, her evil selfishness, and decides to set Belén free. But it’s too late.
      An unexpected final turn leaves the three lovers, Belén, Fabiana, and Adrián, locked inside the bunker. A descent into an eternal space of madness planned and created by Belén. Her soul completely possessed by the bunker.
    • Beginning of shooting
    • Aug 01, 2010