The Fury of a Patient Man

A getaway driver is caught after a jewellery robbery in Madrid and serves eight years. When he comes out José is waiting: a quiet, polite man who bothers nobody. José has been waiting years for this man's release. The person killed during the robbery was his fiancée, and nobody knows it. The subject is not revenge but what eight years of waiting does to a person. There is no rage in José's plan; every step has been thought through in advance, and it is exactly that coldness which unsettles the viewer. The film does not vindicate him and shows the cost in its final section. The form is patient. Almost nothing happens for the first half hour; the camera waits, the exchanges are short and there is almost no music. When the violence comes it is sudden and brief. It is Raúl Arévalo's first film as director. He was a well-known actor in Spain and moved behind the camera with this. It won several prizes at the Spanish Goyas including best film and best new director. Antonio de la Torre plays José, Luis Callejo the former convict and Ruth Díaz his wife. Who it is for: viewers who like slow-building Spanish thrillers and hard revenge stories. Who it is not for: anyone with no patience for low tempo; the first half is deliberately still.