Cell 211

Juan Oliver comes in a day early to get to know the prison where he is about to start work as a guard. The riot breaks out exactly then. Knocked unconscious, he wakes up in cell 211. The only way to survive is to behave like an inmate. He wins the trust of Malamadre, who is leading the riot, while secretly keeping a line to the outside. Political bargaining over Basque separatists comes into it, and so does the death of his pregnant wife in a protest outside. Daniel Monzon directed, from Francisco Perez Gandul's 2003 novel. Luis Tosar plays Malamadre. It was shot entirely in Zamora, Spain, in an abandoned prison from the 1980s renovated specifically for the production. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 98 percent from 45 reviews, the consensus saying it avoids exploitative thrills in favour of expertly ratcheted tension. At the 2010 Goya Awards it won eight prizes, among them Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor for Luis Tosar, Best Supporting Actress for Marta Etura, Best New Actor for Alberto Ammann and Best Adapted Screenplay. Who it is for: viewers who like prison films and the tension of a character forced to keep up a pretence. Who it is not for: anyone who cannot take the harshness. In the riot scenes the film never pulls back.