Kritiken

Not unlike Koldo Serra with 2006's The Backwoods, Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo in The Night of the Sunflowers from the same year, Juan José Campanella with 2009's The Secret in their Eyes, or Juan Carlos Medina in 2012's Painless, here co-writer/director Rodríguez offers the generic thrills of investigative procedural as gripping cover under which to smuggle in all manner of historical reflection and state-of-the-nation commentary.

Rodríguez and DP Alex Catalán's shadowy visuals reference the Seville photographer Atín Aya, whose stark black-and-white images capture the eerie qualities of the marshlands and their inhabitants. Rodríguez's remarkable accomplishment lies in fusing Aya's crisp portrait style with both a noirish colour palette and a rich soundtrack blending the sinister stringed music of a mandolin with the ambient noise of animated fairgrounds and bars, cicadas and local wildlife.

Rodriguez keeps the action taut — and shows a real eye for striking images via a series of beautiful aerial shots that make the landscape look like a labyrinth – while suggesting how easy it is for people to become bogged down in the marsh of the past even as they are trying to move forwards.