Spanish actor Ester Expósito (“Elite”) is circling the upcoming feature “Stink Eye” (“Malmirada”) and has signed a letter of intent to topline the feature debut of Colombian director-writer Cristina Sánchez Salamanca, who first caught the film world’s eye with her short “Bebé” at the 2022 Tribeca Festival.
“Stink Eye” is among the projects participating at Madrid’s Iberseries Co-Production and Financing Forum which has also snagged Goya-nominated cinematographer Gris Jordana, whose credits include Netflix’s “La Bola Negra” (Cannes 2026 Best Director winner and a strong contender to represent Spain at the Oscars), “La Mesías” and “Liberty” (“Libertad”).
The drama revolves around 13-year-old Nina whose life is upended when her father leaves her mother for Belén, a striking model-influencer, which would be role played by Expósito, who has a massive following on social media herself, with 24.7 million followers on Instagram alone.
The scandal leaves her mother grappling with her mental and physical health which forces Nina to move in with her father and his new wife. To improve her social status among the horny teens she wants to impress, she creates a black market of her stepmother’s stolen underwear, discovering her own identity and sexuality in the process.
As Nina longs to fill the maternal void in her life, she finds herself growing unexpectedly close to her stepmother. The closer Nina gets to Belén, the more conflicted she feels about her real mother.
Sánchez Salamanca drew from her own childhood experience to write the story: “When I was seven, my father left my mother for Miss Universe. Or well, the first runner-up. This woman was beautiful, poised, charming, intelligent and oozed sex. How can you find your own place in life when such a huge shadow is cast upon you?”
“The most exciting aspect of this project is having the magnetic Ester Expósito on board to play such an important figure in my own coming of age. I can’t think of anyone better to deconstruct the perfect woman and show something much more interesting that lies beneath. This isn’t a coming-of-age story. It’s closer to dark comedy body horror – but here, the horror lies in growing up as a 13-year-old girl in a world that validates women’s existence through the eyes of others.”
As a director and screenwriter, Sánchez’s work explores the fragility and darkness of the human condition. Alienation, the body, duality, identity and the shadow are recurring themes, rooted in her experience of navigating the world around her. In “Bebé,” she captured the angst of childhood amid the fractures of a broken family, while her vision for “The Tour ‘23,” a series of short documentaries commissioned by Victoria’s Secret, explored the chaotic experience of moving through Bogotá in a woman’s body.
“Stink Eye” is produced by Continente Pictures, led by Sánchez and her producing partner Duván Duque Vargas, along with Spain’s Ringo Media, run by Mireia Graell (“Matria”) and France’s Dibona Films, led by Jérémy Zelnik (“The Spectacle,” Cannes 2025).
Duque Vargas and Paola Pérez Nieto serve as producers.
Both of Continente Pictures’ debut features “Stink Eye” and “Name and Surname” have participated in such development programs as the Torino Film Lab, the ECAM Forum and Sørfond’s Pitching Forum, winning a host of awards at Colombia’s Bogota Audiovisual Market (BAM) as well as Ventana Sur and Guadalajara.
Director Cristina Sánchez Salamanca Courtesy of Continente Pictures
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