El misterio Galíndez (2003)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Gerardo Herrero

Writers:

Ángeles González Sinde (writer)
Luis Marías (writer)

Release Date:

26 September 2003 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

On March 12, 1956, Basque Nationalist Jesús de Galíndez Suarez disappears from his apartment in New York...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Saffron Burrows	...	Muriel Colber
Harvey Keitel	...	Edward Robards
Eduard Fernández	...	Galíndez
Guillermo Toledo	...	Ricardo
John Furey	...	Norman Radcliffe
Reynaldo Miravalles	...	Don Angelito
Chete Lera	...	Diplomático
Miriam Learra	...	Rosa
Carlos Padrón	...	Leon María Jara
Jacqueline Arenal	...	Gloria Moral
Mario Limonta	...	Areces (Old)
Joel Angelino	...	Don Angelito (Young)
Enrique Almirante	...	Trujillo
Hugo Reyes	...	Areces (Young)
Jorge Alí	...	Rivera Maculeto

Also Known As:

El misterio Galíndez (Spain)
Galindez (France)
The Galíndez File (International: English title)
The Galíndez Mystery (Canada: English title) (working title)

Runtime:

Canada:126 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | Argentina:125 min | 116 min (IFC library print) | Finland:116 min (25 fps) (DVD)

Country:

Spain | UK | Italy | Portugal | Cuba | France

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Spain:13 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Canada

Company:

DMVB Films

More than a thriller

The last film directed by Gerardo Herrero is based on the Manuel V. Montalban's novel `Galíndez' and written to the screen by Luis Marías, a well-known Spanish writer.

Galíndez was an independentist from the Bask Country that had to leave Spain since 1939, when Republicans lost the Civil War. He lived first in Santo Domingo and later went to New York as a University Professor. Just after publishing his Thesis about Trujillo as a book, he was kidnapped and disappeared. His body was never found.

In the movie, Muriel (Saffron Burrows) goes to Spain at the last 80's to work in her Thesis about `the Ethics of Resistance'. She finds this case so interesting as to decide that Galíndez (Eduard Fernandez) was the main subject of her Thesis, and starts to investigate about his disappearing. All along the film, we will know some interesting characters as the CIA's agent Robards (Harvey Keitel) or Don Angelito (Reynaldo Miravalles), and other less important to the plot as Muriel's boyfriend Ricardo (Guillermo Toledo) or the Thesis' director (John Furey).

The story is set in different sceneries (Madrid, Bask Country, New York and Dominican Republic) and there are a lot of flashbacks in the movie. We are seeing two stories in fact, the real of Galíndez and the fictitious of Muriel, but they are in some way the same: the search of the true, and the danger that occasionally this may represent.

Technically, the film has no faults. Perhaps a bit confuse in some moments -don't forget this is a thriller, and the mistery must involve the plot- but gripping from start to finish; the photography is excellent, and the main characters are played correctly. If you like thrillers and Spanish cinema, don't miss it!