Bajo tu piel | A poetic journey into memory and historical forgetting

Esperanza Films’ feature film debut is born from the exhumation and dignification process of four residents of Madrigueras (Albacete), who were persecuted after the Spanish Civil War.

A feature film that blends documentary, theatrical fiction, and experimental animation, exploring the boundaries between formats, between reality and dreams, between what was and what might have been.

Bajo tu piel tells the story of a town that, like so many others in Spain, still has too many blank pages.

Let’s start at the beginning.

As happened in so many places across Spain, Francoist repression claimed the lives of the residents of Madrigueras José Sahuquillo, José Tendero, and Dídimo Martínez in the summer of 1939, and of Antonio Beleña in January 1940. Their bodies were thrown into a mass grave next to the cemetery in Chinchilla de Montearagón, where they remained for more than eight decades. It was not until the summer of 2023 that their families were able to recover their remains and, in March 2024, finally lay them to rest with dignity in their hometown.

Esperanza Films documented this entire process through more than sixty hours of filming, accompanying the families and the archaeological team from the Autonomous University of Madrid, led by Professor Ángel Fuentes Domínguez.

From this material emerged Bajo tu piel, a feature film supported by the Association for Historical Memory of Madrigueras, Chinchilla de Monte-Aragón and the surrounding region, which weaves together real testimonies with a fictional narrative that gives voice and presence to the four victims of repression.

Synopsis. When fiction becomes documentary.

Four men argue in a windowless room made of compacted sand. They argue about whether anyone will come to take them out or not. Their positions are divided between José, the wise socialist businessman; Tendero, the former mayor and intellectual; Dídimo, a hopeful soldier; and Antonio, a skeptical trade unionist who has lost his faith.

Days pass, tension rises, and no one comes. But footsteps can be heard above. The men shout to be rescued, but nothing happens. Silence. Sitting on the dirt floor, waiting for something that never arrives, a terrible thought begins to grow in one of them:

what if they are already dead?

A filmed stage play. This is where you come in.

The project is currently in an advanced stage of development, but, like much independent cinema, it has not yet received public funding. To complete the filming of the fictional section, we need your support.

The goal of this crowdfunding campaign is to finance the production of the project and ensure that the story can reach audiences as a feature film, while preserving the creative independence and historical rigor made possible through self-funding.

The fictional section will be filmed as a stage play at Teatro del Barrio (Madrid), between April 20 and 26, 2026, in a hybrid format that connects live performance with cinematic language. It will also feature a distinguished cast including Aníbal Soto, Iván Villanueva, Javier Lera, and António Chamizo, who will portray José Sahuquillo, José Tendero, Dídimo Martínez, and Antonio Beleña, respectively.

Where your contributions go.

Teatro del Barrio has made it possible for us to carry out the filming of the theatrical fiction by providing us with a unique space in the heart of Madrid.

The funds raised through this crowdfunding campaign will be used to cover the costs of the production: cast, technical crew, artistic team, as well as its promotion.

With this support, we will be able to complete a large part of the film’s production and move into the post-production phase.

Your support comes with rewards.

In an exhumation, it is archaeologists and families who make it possible to rescue from oblivion those who were robbed of their time and their embraces.

To close the circle and give voice and presence, on stage and on screen, to those who waited for us for decades, we ask for your support. As if it were a new excavation. Another effort to keep bringing to light the words that still lie buried.

Join our team to make this possible. There are as many ways to help as there are roles in an exhumation, as many steps in a process that, little by little, restores from the ground up the name and dignity of an entire generation that is still waiting for us.

Partners who make Bajo tu piel possible.

In addition to the invaluable support and constant commitment of the Association for Historical Memory of Madrigueras, Chinchilla de Monte-Aragón and the surrounding region, and the Forensic Archaeology Laboratory of the Autonomous University of Madrid, Bajo tu piel already benefits from the support of key partners who have joined the project from different fields.

Focusing on the theatrical fiction that will be filmed in April, we would like to highlight the following:

A window to the world: Teatro del Barrio

Teatro del Barrio, a leading cultural cooperative in Madrid and winner of the 2024 National Theatre Award, is making the filming of the theatrical fiction possible by providing the project with its space and artistic expertise. True to its commitment to memory, social justice, and a critical and accessible culture, it becomes a key partner in telling this story from a living, collective place, deeply connected to social reality.

Body and voice: the cast

Completing the artistic team is a strong and diverse cast with extensive experience in theatre, film, and television. Aníbal Soto is a Spanish actor with a versatile career in both drama and comedy, known for his roles in series such as Mi gitana, Gran Reserva, and Cuéntame cómo pasó, as well as for his work in film (Ocho apellidos marroquís, La sombra del quebrantahuesos) and theatre, and his experience as a voice actor. Javier Lera has received solid acting training at institutions such as La Lavandería, Metrópolis, and El Estudio, and has worked in film (Odio el verano, Lú Belmonte), television (La favorita 1922, Asalto al banco central), and theatre, while also bringing skills in music, dance, and movement. Iván Villanueva is an actor with an extensive theatrical career dating back to the mid-1990s and a strong presence in television series such as Vaya Semanita, La que se avecina, and Escenas de matrimonio, as well as in film and in contemporary stage productions. António Chamizo is an actor with experience in theatre—directing and performing in works such as La sombra del Tenorio—and with a presence in film and television, bringing depth and maturity to the project’s performances.

Music and sound: Kyria Libia.

On the creative front, the film’s original score will be composed by Kyria Libia, a composer and performer whose work moves between experimental sacred music and electronic sound. Her practice combines pipe organ, voice, and electronics to create immersive, ritual-like soundscapes. Kyria has contributed to notable film projects such as La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés (Antón Álvarez, 2024), winner of two Goya Awards, and composed the original score for Zahra (Hadi Shatat, 2025), which was selected at numerous international festivals.

Space and costume design: Yanyré Arnulf

Yanyré Arnulf, our art director, is a multidisciplinary artist with more than two decades of experience in creating narrative spaces and atmospheres. Since 2020, she has been part of the Art Department on numerous audiovisual productions, specializing in set dressing and scenic painting for film and television projects such as La Casa de Papel, Berlín, Bosé, Montecristo, and Días Mejores, as well as international productions. Her vision transforms space into a living element that supports and enhances the story through both visual and tactile expression.

The director and screenwriter behind this story.

Raúl San Julián Alonso (Gandía, 1982) is a director, screenwriter, historian, actor, and educator. For more than twenty years, he has combined his work in theatre, film, advertising, and education.

He holds a degree in History from the Autonomous University of Madrid and trained in Directing at ECAM. Among his works are the short films Angelitos Negros (2009), recommended by the Spanish Ministry of Education, and Los Benditos (2010), both produced by Minotauro Producciones. He has served as script advisor on the short film El Cazatalentos (M. Sirgo and J. Herrera, 2018), winner of the Goya Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2019; as screenwriter of the documentary Mi Barrio: Vallecas (J. Vera and I. Iniesta, 2023), selected for the Blogos de Oro independent film awards; and as producer of the animated short El Principito Oscar (M. Buñuel, 2024).

In parallel, he has built an extensive career as a theatre director, playwright, and actor, directing or writing more than a dozen stage productions, including América para los americanos (2002), El paso escarlata (2011), and MadriZ (2025). He has also directed and coordinated several theatre companies, including Teatro Mágiko (2004–2008), Warhol Cabaret (2015–2017), and Teatro Bandada (2024–2026).

He is also the founder and director of Feelmotion, an international university film festival organized by UDIT (2012–2024). He has worked as a copywriter for the advertising agency McGuffin and delivered the TEDx talk La educación audiovisual como constructora de sentidos de vida (2020). After fifteen years as a university lecturer, he was named UDIT’s Best Educator in 2025.

Esperanza Films. Where many stories converge.

ESPERANZA FILMS S.L. was founded in 2024. Many of us live, or have lived, in the Virgen de la Esperanza neighborhood in Madrid, where the name is not a metaphor, but a root. Our first feature film, Bajo tu piel, is only the beginning of a production company with a social and experimental vocation.

The very act of wanting to tell a story and delve deeply into it pushes us to break the limits and rules of narration. As our great aesthetic, ethical, and methodological reference, Agnès Varda, once said: “If you open people up, you’ll find landscapes.”

That is why.

The search for a story sometimes leads us down unexpected paths. What matters, however, must remain. The way of telling it is what can—and must—change, in order to do justice to circumstances and remain faithful to the limitations of each format when narrating a human story that is, by definition, multifaceted.

At ESPERANZA FILMS S.L., we believe in the social responsibility of art and in its transformative power, embracing the motto of thousands of historical memory associations in Spain:

“Opening graves, closing wounds.”

Key dates.

The theatrical fiction, which will be filmed as part of the film, will have public performances between April 23 and 26, 2026, and tickets are already available on the Teatro del Barrio website and at the box office.

Afterwards, the film will enter the post-production phase, where, in addition to editing and original sound composition, animation content and archival footage will be added to complete the story. We will work on this throughout 2026 in order to reach the distribution and release phase by late 2027.

Follow the production process.

Whether you want to learn more about the project or stay up to date with how production is progressing, you can find us on our website and on social media. We will also be happy to answer any questions you may have about Bajo tu piel.

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