El caso Almería (1984)

Director:

Pedro Costa

Writers:

Nereida B. Arnau (writer)
Pedro Costa (writer)

Release Date:

26 January 1984 (Spain)

Plot:

When a Spanish judge has the courage to look into a political murder...

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Agustín González
Fernando Guillén
Manuel Alexandre
Margarita Calahorra
Iñaki Miramón
Pedro Díez del Corral
Antonio Banderas
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Muntsa Alcañiz	...	Mujer del abogado
Paco Catalá
Fernando Chinarro
Juan Echanove
Carlos Iglesias
Ramón Langa
Francisco Olmo
Diana Peñalver
Juan Jesús Valverde	...	El soplon

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Company:

Multivideo

For history's sake

The value of El Caso Almería does not lie in its story-telling qualities. Far from it. Strictly from a "cinematographic" perspective, the story is boringly told, the acting is lousy and so is the direction.

The TRUE value of this film however is WHAT it dares tell and make public: the murder of three young people by the Spanish Military because they were suspected of being ETA terrorists, and how one judge tried to investigate the case. The film is all the more daring when one thinks that the film director was himself threatened while directing it, and found it extremely difficult to release it (I personally saw it many many years later in Belgium!). This clearly shows that the country still has difficulties confronting its infamous past and that alone is argument enough to see and diffuse this film as widely as possible. So that it may never happen again.