ECAM Incubator Title ‘The Woodworm’ Explores Female Identity in the Shadow of an Artist Father

In “The Woodworm” (“El Corquim”), the feature debut of Laura Obradors, a teenage girl’s search for an identity of her own runs up against the authority of her father, a successful artist in creative crisis.

Developed through Madrid’s ECAM Incubator, the project examines the power exercised inside a family and the artistic prestige that can shield it from scrutiny.

Produced by Sergio Adrià’s Espurna Films, with Sandra Hermida on board as co-producer, the film centers on 17-year-old Clara, whose desire to be seen and loved is complicated by a growing impulse to escape the expectations surrounding her.

“Clara always seems to crave something from the outside world: to be seen, accepted, acknowledged, adored,” Obradors told Variety. “But at the same time she has an internal and contradictory impulse that wants to push her to break free from these attachments and become more independent, mature, and free.”

Inspired by the life of a close friend, the project grew from the filmmaker’s interest in the conflicting feelings that can coexist in a daughter’s relationship with her father. For Obradors, that relationship also provides an early encounter with the rules and expectations of a wider masculine world.

“Somewhere between these two polarities is a world that inspired me to make this film — an attitude, an action, where preservation and destruction coexist,” she said.

Clara grows up within a family structure shaped by power, submission and male pleasure, with few alternative points of reference. Questioning what she has learned about femininity and intimacy means confronting the guilt attached to that questioning.

Her father Ricard’s profession brings another layer to those dynamics. As both a parent and a painter, he has the power to shape a person’s understanding of the world and the images through which that world is represented.

“For a long time, we’ve seen the artist as a kind of genius and almost a divine figure,” Obradors said. “That idea can sometimes make us forget that artists are also responsible for what they create and for the power they have.”

Adrià, whose producing credits include “Upon Entry” and Gerard Oms’ “Away,” was drawn to the decision to place Clara’s experience at the center of the film.

“It’s not a film about how he deals with his inner demons or impulses: it’s all about her, focusing on the construction of female identity in a hostile and male-dominated environment,” he said.

That perspective will also inform the film’s visual approach. Adrià describes a world filtered through adolescence, where people, places and situations can appear idealized, magical or unsettling. The beauty of the landscape will sit alongside the cruelty unfolding among the characters.

Espurna, which Adrià founded in 2023, is developing the project as part of its commitment to auteur-driven, original-language Catalan cinema with international potential. Obradors previously directed the shorts “Si amanece, nos vamos” and “Las chicas,” the latter produced by Espurna.

At the time of the interview, “The Woodworm” was on its fourth script draft, following participation in Mexico’s Cine Qua Non Lab and ECAM’s La Incubadora. It has received development support from the Catalan Institute for Cultural Enterprises, with selections for Cannes Focus COPRO’ and ECAM Forum’s Films to Come helping broaden its industry reach.

Obradors said the development process had allowed her to gain distance from the material’s origins, “put reality at the service of the film rather than the other way around.”

Hermida, whose credits include “Society of the Snow,” “A Monster Calls” and “The Impossible,” mentored the project through La Incubadora alongside director and screenwriter Carlos Marqués-Marcet, who took a new director Goya for “10,000 km.”

The team is seeking co-producers, distributors and sales agents across Spain, France, Portugal and Belgium, and are in attendance at San Sebastián and will be at Les Arcs Industry Village.

For Obradors, the title offers a way into Clara’s domestic world: an insect weakening a structure from within, and all the while difficult to detect.

“It’s a space of repression, silent and invisible, where suffering, fear, and guilt live,” she said. “Clara feels like an intruder, especially when she comes into conflict with the different images of herself that have been constructed around her.”