In the storm

A woman and her little daughter must fight a hellish beast
after her husband has left them alone to go in search of the
american dream

  • Jorge Gutiérrez Peña
    Director
  • Jorge Gutiérrez Peña
    Writer
    No place like home, Squadron 2011, the origin of fire
  • Jorge Gutiérrez Peña
    Producer
  • Mabel Cadena
    Key Cast
    "Socorro"
    La diosa del Asfalto, El baile de los 41
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    En la tormenta
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 30 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    July 31, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    450,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Mexico
  • Country of Filming:
    Mexico
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Distribution Information
  • Soul Pictures
    Sales Agent
    Country: Spain
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Jorge Gutiérrez Peña

Film director, Producer, Screenwriter and Actor. He was born in Ciudad Juárez on August 13, 1973. He studied Dramatic Art at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua from 1993 to 1995 and has a degree in Audiovisual Media with an orientation in filmmaking from the Universidad de Medios Audiovisuales (CAAV) of Guadalajara, Jalisco. He has taken courses, workshops and seminars in: Fantastic Story (Eugenio Aguirre), film production (Carlos Taibo, Roberto Fiesco, Alan Coton), Cinefotography (Guillermo Navarro) and Horror Script (Enrique Rentería) among others. He has filmed more than twelve short films, among which are: "La Rutina de la Aguja" (2005, winner of the contest "The Shortest Short in Guadalajara" in 2006), "Tu Turno" (2005), "El Solitario" (2006 ), "The Final Breath" (2006) and "La Fiesta" (2007). He has participated as an actor in more than ten plays.

He produced, wrote and directed the radio program "Al Filo de la Realidad" in Ciudad Juárez in 1997. He worked as an actor alongside Héctor Suárez in the TV program "¿Qué nos Pasa?" in 1999. He has written thirteen screenplays, in addition to dozens of short films and short stories. He was the screenwriter for the animated series about the Guadalajara Pan American Games, "Escuadrón 2011, El Origen Del Fuego". The script of his authorship "No place like home" by director Jorge Ramírez, filmed in english, is due to be released in 2021.

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Director Statement

One of the most important elements in this rural horror story is telling the story from a female point of view. The heroine, at first, must be shown as a devoted wife and at the same time reluctant to let her husband go in search of the American dream. She seems to be a prisoner in her own home, with no ambition other than to live a simple life with her husband and daughter. From the beginning of the story, she enters her house to never come out again until the final minute.
Female empowerment is the backbone of the story's subtext. The rain and the wind of the storm are a metaphor for the life of the protagonist, it is everything that is outside her home, the world itself without a man to protect her, dangerous and noisy, that is why she prefers to stay at home, although that makes her a prisoner. First a victim of her fears, then a heroine, because life leaves her no other option.
Evil comes from the north. This is another discourse that is handled in the subtext of the story. He who leaves for the United States becomes contaminated, bad, evil, and if he returns, he will come to look the hard way for what he could not obtain in his place of origin. Socorro knows that her husband is going to a place that will corrupt him, and she understands that both her brother Roberto and her former lover, Rogelio, are very different men from the ones she met before they left. That is why Socorro, even if her husband asked her, would not go to live with him in the United States. For her, the storm is even stronger on that side.
Religion and Christian symbolism, mixed with shamanistic practices for protection against demons and evil spirits, will be very important when it comes to being represented in a painting, as if it were a manual for those who want to know how to fight these beings of darkness.
The project In the storm wants to represent a rural Mexico full of nuances, with different characters that embody representative personalities of the context in which the story is set. It is a feminine drama full of monsters and traumas, of love and abandonment, of the corn harvest season and the times that bring storms with it.