All the Names of God

Santi drives a taxi in Madrid. One morning he wakes at home and there is a man sitting in his kitchen. The man is wearing an explosive vest and has brought one for Santi. His wife and son are hostages. What the man wants is simple: Santi will put on the vest and go where he is told. There are police outside, telephones ringing and time running. Santi tries to buy time by talking. Daniel Calparsoro directs. Luis Tosar plays Santi, with Inma Cuesta in the cast. The narrative takes place largely in one location and the tension comes from the conversation between two men. What interests the film is radicalisation. Who the attacker is and how he got there opens inside the narrative, and the film does not build him as a one dimensional figure. Luis Tosar is among the best known actors in Spanish cinema and the part here is played entirely under physical pressure. Daniel Calparsoro works in genre, and the construction follows the measures of the thriller. Its limit is the last section; the political frame is dropped past a certain point and the film turns to an action resolution. Who it is for: viewers who like Spanish thrillers and films set in one location. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, the tension stays inside genre convention, and the ending does not close the argument.