INSENSIBLES

On the eve of the Spanish Civil War, a group of children insensitive to physical pain are shut away in a hospital in the Pyrenees. Today, David Martel, a brilliant neurosurgeon in need of a bone graft to survive, must find his biological parents. In his quest, he uncovers oil ghosts from Sapin’s past and is confronted with the tragic destiny of the children. Juan Carlos Medina recalls with brio the fantastic universe of del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone or Whale’s Frankenstein in this Franco-Iberian co-production. Both a scientific fantastic thriller and an autopsy of Spain’s black years of dictatorship, Painless juggles with genre and atmospheres, from the dark and violent to emotional moment of pure poetry.

Juan Carlos Medina started out as a production assistant in 1998 on Santiago Segura’s Torrente, el bravo onto de la ley. Painless is his first feature film as a director.