This is the reasonably impressive feature debut by Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo, who previously only made a couple of short films a decade ago. If you can imagine a slightly underwhelming cross between Twin Peaks, I Spit on Your Grave and an episode of Poirot then this is it!
Opening with the discovery of a girl’s body in a field of sunflowers, we then find out she was raped. It seems as though we’re trying to detect the culprit whereas in actuality, the film then gives a series of interlinked characters a chapter each to expose their part in the affair, even if it seems they have nothing to do with the previous part of the story. The picture bravely moves around in time and this works really nicely at the start of the film, although this proves a little over-complicated by the end. The only problem with Sánchez-Cabezudo’s non-linear approach to plotting is that we do lose track of the story, not to say this isn’t intended, as a baffling Lynchean style device. It is a little frustrating, however, when characters are introduced, for example our original rape victim, and then not reincorporated again – the audience is denied the resolution it’s waiting for.
Krishna Levy’s music is superb, summoning fear and intrigue with a charming air of dated murder mystery. The leading actors are very strong, if occasionally let down by those supporting them. The director uses each character to explore a human flaw, from strangely endearing insanity to the extreme greed and corruption of a policeman to a ruthless serial rapist. There is a graphic rape scene in the first third of the film which certainly comes as a shock and stands alone as the bit of plot that you desperately want there to have been a reason for, was it connected to the first rape? Will it be resolved? Where is our rapist? Again, we’re tantalisingly denied any real explanation other than that bad things breed more bad things and so on.
There is room for greater clarity, in so far as many aspects of the story are left without a point, unless purely to distract or confuse the audience. That aside this is a great looking and intriguingly constructed film, pleasing aesthetically in both its locations and soundtrack. It will draw you in and leave you all of a muddle and sometimes that’s enough to make a memorable film – one that here is best described as a quirky but striking mystery.