Infiesto

Infiesto is s small mining town in the province of Asturias, in northwest Spain. The time is the end of winter, a dark, rainy, melancholic season. The lead characters are Inspector Samuel (male) and Subinspector Castro (female). The movie opens with the roadside appearance of a teenager, alive, kidnapped long ago and presumed dead.

The first half is rather good; it shows routine police work with frustrating leads, abundance of dead ends and uncooperative witnesses. It also shows in passing the heavy industry that pollutes the air and defiles the verdant, idyllic landscapes of Asturias with open pits, denuded hillsides and smokestacks.

However, the story veers midway into horror movie territory. Improbabilities and impossibilities pile up and, what could have been a good police procedural slides into the (unintentionally) funny. Direction, cinematography and acting are good, but they can's cope with the material. The time frame of the action is the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and this is brought into play but is mostly inessential to the action.

I was intrigued by the choice of a town with the strange name Infiesto. It is close to infesto (I infest) and to Infierno (hell), both pertinent to the happenings in the movie.

This film opens on day one of the Covid lockdown in Spain. A young woman who has been missing, presumed dead, for several months turns up in Infiesto, a small mining town in the Asturian Mountains. She is alive but not speaking. Police officers Inspector Samuel Garcia and his sergeant, Marta Castro are investigating her kidnapping. It soon becomes clear to them that this was more than an isolated kidnapping by a lone culprit. The more they discover the more disturbed they are and the disappearance of another girl gives them a sense of urgency.

I thought this was a solid enough crime thriller, perhaps not a must see but a decent enough addition to the genre. It starts well and the tension escalates nicely as we learn more about the crimes and the perpetrators. Having it set against the backdrop of the enforced lockdown wasn't really necessary but nor did it detract; having so few people about added to the atmosphere. The atmosphere was already pretty good due to the remote location and overcast or rainy weather. The central story isn't the most original but there is only so much one can do in a popular genre. The cast is solid, especially Isak Férriz and Iria del Río, who play Garcia and Castro respectively. Overall a decent enough film for fans of Euro-crime dramas.

These comments are based on watching the film in Spanish with English subtitles.

(2023) Infiesta (In Spanish with English subtitles) THRILLER

It takes place during the year of Covid, and two homicide detectives of Samuel García (Isak Férriz) and Marta Castro(Iria Del Río) are assigned to the abduction case when a young ragged and disheveled girl reappears in the middle of the road before she is then put in a hospital. When the two detectives are coming up to see her, they apparently have their own problems at home, while Samuel is forbidden to see his mother at a care home, Marta's boyfriend has covid. By the time they got their first real lead a guy, Manuel Gomez known as "Dog Killer" somewhat owns a winery, only when he's found out he shoots himself.

The movie was involving for about a hour and 20 minutes up until the third bad guy was discovered, totally ignores proper police protocol. Like, the police had the photo all along and they do not investigate everyone in the photo immediately, how ridiculous! Netflix must have wanted them to wrap the movie up or something!

This was an alright spanish thriller. Iv'e seen bettee but as far as im concerned this was still great. For me however the only thing that let this movie down really was the dubbing. I didnt understand why it was overally acted and it therefor made the script sound a little unpolished aswell. But looking past that lets get to the actual film. Its all about this young girl that turns up after being missing for three months. The lead detectives try to find out who was responsible for the capture and within this find out it might be part of even bigger thing. The cast of this movie were good and interesting to watch. The plot was pretty good and was entertaining. Overall a pretty good thriller.

I know that I am not a great fan of serial killers films. But there were great ones such as SEVEN of course, the best ever, and several other ones. But this one has nothing to remind of, nothing exceptional to remember. You have the unavoidable detectives duet and the rest is predictable, with the also unavoidable raining scenes, a cliché for serial killers films. No real surprise, if you have seen at least ten serial killer schemes in your life. I prefered THE PLAGUES OF BRESLAU, made in 2018. The only unusual thing is that it takes place at the beginning of the COVID plague, but is it useful to give quality to this flat movie? To enhance the interest to see it? I don't think so.