Marshland

In the early 1980s, during Spain's transition after Franco, two detectives from Madrid are sent to a town in the Guadalquivir marshes. Two teenage girls have disappeared. It becomes clear quickly that this is not a missing persons case; there have been killings in the area for years and nobody talks. The two detectives are nothing alike: one belongs to the new era, the other's past runs into Franco's security apparatus. Alberto Rodríguez directed. Javier Gutiérrez and Raúl Arévalo play the detectives. Alex Catalán shot it. It won ten awards at the 2015 Goyas including Best Cinematography. At the 2014 San Sebastián Film Festival Gutiérrez took Best Actor and Catalán Best Cinematography. What builds the film's visual identity is the aerial photography. Rodríguez used the aerial nature photographs taken in the Guadalquivir marshes by Héctor Garrido as a direct source, and those abstract, vein-like patterns of water are cut into the film. Who it is for: viewers who like dark police stories and films centred on Spain's transition. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a fast resolution. The film uses the murder case to describe a political background and deliberately slows itself down.