Year of Release: 2023
Director: Albert Pintó
Starring: Anna Castillo, Tamar Novas, Tony Corvillo, Mariam Torres, Irina Bravo, Victoria Teijeiro
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
Watch it on Netflix
Synopsis and Review
Another week, another exclusive Netflix release, this time around a Spanish thriller, from director Albert Pintó, who made a name for himself firstly with a series of shorts, before moving to full features with the well received "Matar a Dios/Killing God". This time around, the narrative focuses on Mia and Nico, a couple who is looking to escape a totalitarian regime, one that has brought nothing but imprisonment, torture, and chaos to the country they live in. That regime has also been responsible for the death of their young daughter Uma, and Mia is pregnant with another girl. They embark on a daring escape, paying an underground ring for the opportunity to be smuggled in cargo containers on a ship. However as they're making their way in the containers, the organizers of the smuggling divide them both, and worst of all, Mia's container gets uncovered by policing and everyone on it gets murdered as a result. She ends up all alone on her container, hidden and meager rations. As the ship sets on its way, it encounters a rough storm, which results in many of the containers being dropped off into the ocean, including Mia's. While she loses her senses as a result of the storm and being tossed around in the container, she also realizes fairly quickly she needs to figure out some way to survive, as one of the other containers also containing people sank to the bottom of the ocean. To make matters worst, her baby seems intent on being born at the most inconvenient of times.
Claustrophobic thrillers, much like any thriller really, can go either direction when it comes to effectiveness of the storytelling. There's quite a few iconic takes on the genre, including David Fincher's "Panic Room" and even Rodrigo Cortés' "Buried". Albert Pintó's take on the genre is quite smart, particularly as the narrative unfolds and we get to witness Mia's resourcefulness tackling the challenges she's in. It's less well accomplished when looking beyond the predicament of the situation itself, since we never really get much of an understanding for who Mia actually is, aside from the trauma in her life provoked by the regime she's fleeing from, and the fact that she was a teacher at some point. Her relationship with her husband/partner Nico is briefly illustrated, and her mother figure appears as a static photo she presents to her baby during her time of storytelling. They're brief glimpses, ones that beg for a bit more development of the character itself, which sadly never materializes. However, the core of the situation, and how the director illustrates it is indeed quite successful, as the dangers in which Mia finds herself are portrayed in a very authentic and even visceral manner. It makes for a compelling view, since the director anchors his point of view on the talents of Anna Castillo, who is very effective as Mia, who goes across a range of emotions in this film, including sheer panic, exhilaration, and exhaustion. The production team is equally effective, including Unax Mendia's cinematography, Dídac Bono's production design and Miguel Burgos' editing. A fairly tense and watchable thriller.
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