Movie review: Marshland

A scene from Marshland. Photo / Supplied

Setting and subtext are every bit as important as story in this dark Spanish police procedural, which took all the big awards at the country's Oscar-equivalent Goyas this year.

The marshland of the title, where much of the country's rice grows, provides a faintly menacing backdrop - in the eerie title sequence, satellite pictures make the region look like tissue samples under a microscope - and the film's visual style uses the landscape to depict its characters as marooned and disconnected.

It's the early 80s and the country is emerging uncertainly from the Franco era.
Old loyalties are dying hard - the area, we gather, was a fascist stronghold - and widespread industrial unrest lends a simmering sense of disquiet.

Everybody wants to be somewhere else.

The two big-city cops, Pedro (Arevalo) and Juan (Gutierrez), who arrive to investigate the disappearance of two teenage sisters, are a study in contrasts. The former is about to become a father; the latter - superbly brought to life by an actor mostly known as a comedian - has a swaggering style and an indifference to protocol that hints at a dark back story.

To say much more than that would be to drain much of the dramatic life out of what follows, but it's enough to say that this is more than just an odd-couple, buddy-cop drama.

In fact, as straight police procedural, Marshland doesn't touch all the bases. Its distracting narrative detours and abrupt, even facile, denouement are disappointing. But there's much more going on than meets the eye.

Director and co-writer Gutierrez has packed the story with symbolic touches that are never heavy-handed: one character's disease, another's soft, perfumed hands, the importance of a poacher as a character.

Better still, the ambiguities of the age weigh heavy on the film right up to the closing titles.

Style may get the better of substance at times, but this is a classy, often enthralling piece of work.

Cast:

Raul Arevalo, Javier Gutierrez, Antonio de la Torre, Nerea Barros, Salva Reina, Jesus Castro

Director:

Alberto Rodriguez

Running time:

104 minutes

Rating:

R16 (violence, offensive language, content that may disturb) In Spanish with English subtitles

Verdict:

Classy thriller rich in symbolism and subtext