La isla mínima

Gripping and stirring picture , in which there's a fine line between genre conventions and outright clichés . The Spanish deep South, 1980 , in the Marshland a serial killer is on the loose . A series of brutal murders of adolescent girls in a remote and forgotten location bring together a pair of different Police Inspectors Juan (Javier Gutiérrez) and Pedro (Raúl Arévalo) . Two homicide policemen who appear to be poles apart must settle their differences and bring the murderer to justice before more young women lose their lives . With deep divisions in their ideology , these detectives must put aside their differences if they are to successfully hunt down a murderer

Formula thriller filled with gritty action , crisply edition , tension , suspenseful and lots of violence . This serious and truly original film with groundbreaking narrative results to be a fantastically intriguing story of murders , being very well done , swiftly paced and including a twisted screenplay . Interesting theme about a couple of cops who carry out their objectives by whatever means , including violence , slipping outside the bounds of the law through their use of force , coercion , lies and half-truths ; however this issue has been previously treated in many other films , especially American ones . As its story can remember the great American series "True Detective" , because they have similar situations with a misfit pair of cops and two parallel outdoors : American Southern Mississippi against the background of the Spanish south such as Andalucia and its Guadalquivir marshes . It has emotional or aesthetic resonance , even comforting in some ways , and partly because is just more attuned to nuanced variations on what might appear to be mere formula . The plot is simple but plenty of thrills and surprises , as two detectives to track down a killer who for years has terrorized a community in the shadow of a general disregard for women rooted in a misogynistic past . This intelligently made picture relies heavily on the complicated relationship between two disparate characters , both detectives in the homicide division to investigate the grisly killings cases . This moving motion picture contains stylistic boldness and energy , its evocation of a particular time and place , Spain of 30+ years ago , adding impressive images corresponding to various marshes of Andalucia , such as the ones of Coto Doñana and the Salinas De San Fernando in Cádiz . Very good acting from Javier Gutiérrez as a tough , arrogant cop abusing the suspects' civil rights and Raul Arevalo as an upright Inspector who displays his disturbing look to everybody . Support cast is pretty good such as Antonio De la Torre , Nerea Barros and Jesus Castro , ¨El Niño¨ .

Thrilling as well as evocative musical score by Julio De Rosa . Colorful as well as dark cinematography by award-winning Alex Catalan . Aerial photographs at the beginning of the film and others that you can see over it like a guided tour were digitalized from photographs . Being wonderfully shot on location in Coria del Río, Las Cabezas De San Juan , Seville , Andalucía . Some frames of the film are based on photographs of Atín Aya and Héctor Garrido , whose works impressed the filmmakers when they knew his work in a retrospective exhibition . This multi-prized film won several awards such as : Goyas , Feroz Awards, Cinema Writers Circle Awards , Fotogramas de Plata , Gaudí Awards ,José María Forqué Awards , San Sebastián International Film Festival and Spanish Actors Unión . The latest from the director of ¨7 Virgins¨ , ¨El Traje¨ , ¨Factor Pilgrim¨ , ¨Grupo 7¨ or ¨Unit 7¨ was masterfully directed by Alberto Rodríguez . To an outsider, someone who's not a fan of a particular genre , anything that looks somewhat familiar can be grounds for dialing the cliché police , but I think results to be an entertaining film with several scenes that'll have you on the edge of your seat . Rating : Above average , well worth watching , a real masterpiece .