The Sleepers

When children in a village start falling asleep for days, doctor Silvia travels there to find out why.

In a remote village, children begin to fall asleep for days. Silvia, a doctor, travels there to investigate and meets Ana, the owner of the local cinema, who believes the children's illness is the work of a vampire.

Main production country: Spain

Director's note

Before going to film school, I trained as a veterinarian, so I have a fairly rational and sceptical view of life. However, I feel there is a part of me that science cannot reach – the part that tries to connect with the absolute, with the sublime, the one that drives me to seek and create beauty. Like Ana, I see in film a doorway to that world beyond.
I fully understand what it means to be in love with cinema and the act of filmmaking – to be consumed and even vampirised by it. Silvia's case, a woman of science who becomes obsessed with uncovering the mystery of the vampire and the strange sleeping sickness, entering a hidden universe at the cost of herself, is also my own.
A lover of fantasy and horror films since childhood, I have always dreamed of making a vampire film that reinterprets the genre's codes and goes beyond simply frightening the viewer. I believe fantastic cinema offers far greater possibilities: exploring the fears and desires of its characters, creating dreamlike atmospheres and new narrative structures, and offering infinite aesthetic potential that I am certain I will develop in this project.

Producer's note

The production design of 'The Sleepers' involves a significant amount of filming in a jungle, which presents challenges both in financing and in production. However, DarkStudios' experience in international co-productions with Latin America provides a solid foundation to meet these challenges.
Some of our films shot in South America, such as 'The Horned Frog' (Augusto Sinay, 2024) and 'Simbiontes' (Christian Mejía, 2025), were filmed in jungles or forests. Both have provided valuable experience that allows us to explore different production options.
In addition, during the development process, we have participated in the following events: Cinequanon Lab (Mexico), Blood Window, Ventana Sur (Uruguay), FICG's Feratum Genre Pitch (Mexico), and BIFFF Market (Brussels).
We are currently working with the following production scheme, which may evolve as the project progresses: Spain 60%, Mexico 30%, and other co-producers 10%, with a seven-week shoot divided between two weeks in Spain and five weeks in Mexico or Colombia, followed by post-production in Spain.

Screenwiter's note

'The Sleepers' is a fantasy feature film that chronicles the journey of Silvia, a woman with a rationalistic mindset who is surprised by the emergence of the world of the unknown. When Silvia fails to discover the origin of the mysterious disease of children's sleep through scientific methods, her inner need to have faith and be carried away by it is felt for the first time in her life.
The inner change that occurs in Silvia is triggered by her friendship with Ana. For Ana, cinema is a window that allows her to access the dream world and the afterlife, and the films she makes are her way of approaching mystery and being in contact with the world beyond. At first, this is incomprehensible to Silvia, but her contact with Ana, her films, and the dreams of the children who manage to wake up make her feel the need for faith, a passion as strong as that felt by Ana.

Subjects:
disease, art, fairytale, cinematography