The Endless Trench

When the civil war ends, Higinio, a republican, hides in a cavity opened behind a wall of his own house. The plan was to last a few months; it lasted thirty-three years. Outside, his wife Rosa carries the life alone, plays the widow, manages the neighbours' suspicion and takes food to that wall every day. Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga built the film from a real phenomenon known in Spain as the moles: hundreds of people hidden inside houses until Franco's amnesty in 1969. The subject is not fear but the way fear fails to end when the danger does. Antonio de la Torre and Belén Cuesta play them. The camera is tight in the hiding place and wide outside it. Who it is for: viewers who like the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and confined-space drama. Who it is not for: anyone claustrophobic, since long stretches happen behind a wall.