Basque Nationalist Jesús de Galíndez Suárez (1915 - 1956) was a Spanish politician who fought in the Spanish Civil War among the Republicans against Nationalists. He was a writer and Columbia University international law professor of Basque nationalist ideology and represented the Basque government as a delegate , subsequently disappearing in New York City on March 12, 1956, . He was supposedly kidnapped and killed by henchmen of Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic . As he disappeared from his apartment in New York City , and was never heard from again. He had been working with the F. B. I , and was about to publish a book critical of Dominican strongman, Trujillo. In 1988, a graduate student, Muriel Colber (Saffron Burrows) , wants to make Galíndez the subject of her his doctoral thesis . She's in Spain doing research ; finding little results , she goes to Santo Domingo. At every turn, the C. I. A., in the person of Agent Robards (Harvey Keitel) attempts to thwart her ; and, at each turn, as she's deeming in leaving the project, someone offers new information, often contradictory , but then things go wrong. As Muriel investigates the relationships between dictator Trujillo and Galindez resulting in fateful consequences . As Rafael Trujillo was a real dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961 and the official President of the Republic from 1930 to 1938 and 1943 to 1952, he was the iron-handed ruler of this island paradise . Trujillo's character struggles with aging and the physical problems and takes down all kind of opposition . During his "thirty-one years of horrendous political crimes", modernized the country's infrastructure and military, but whose regime's attacks against its enemies overseas , particularly the attempted assassination of Rómulo Betancourt, president of Venezuela .
A thriller with suspense , intrigue , historical events , twists , turns and dealing with a woman who wants the truth behind the Galíndez mystery . The Galíndez case inspired the 1991 novel Galíndez by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, which led to this 2003 movie El Misterio Galíndez (The Galíndez File) . As the novel and the film being based on documents and in a wide range of testimonies of people who knew Galíndez , as well as prosecutor, investigators and former secret agents who took part in the trial to explain the Galíndez file . Today , even , the Galíndez File is still the most expensive investigation ever made for the F. B. I. Similar to Kennedy case and there're still thousands of documents kept as "Top secret" and not publicly known . The main question of the movie is whereabout of this enigmatic figure and the following one : will Muriel find it ? . As the spotlight of the movie accuses the dictator of the Dominican Republic at the time , Rafael Léonidas Trujillo , who supposedly ordered to kill Galíndez , but maybe the game of interests of the U. S. Government led the C. I. A and the F. B. I to take part on the murder of Galíndez. The Galíndez case inspired the 1961 novel Ciudad Trujillo by Andrzej Wydrzynski , equally the book ¨The Feast of the Goat¨, Mario Vargas Llosa talks at length about Galíndez and his disappearance, furthermore , Julia Alvarez references the disappearance of Galíndez in her novel In the Time of the Butterflies and in 2002 Ana Diez directed the documentary ¨Galíndez¨ about the affair.
The motion picture was well directed by Gerardo Herrero . This notorious producer/writer/director has made a lot of important fims. He was President of the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1994-1994) . Great producer of big hits , being especially known for The Secret of your ears (2009), Sin Retorno (2010) , Balada Triste de Trompeta (2010) , Crimenes De Oxford (2008) and El Hijo De La Novia (2001). He also directed some good films , such as ¨Corredor Nocturno¨ , ¨Principio Arquímedes¨ , ¨Crimen Galindez¨ , ¨Frontera Sur¨, ¨Territorio Comanche¨ , ¨Desvio a Paraíso¨ , ¨Al Acecho¨ and ¨Heroína¨ . Despite some failure and gaps , I must admit that I enjoyed this movie and recommend it to those who appeal investigation thrillers .
