Lena (2001)

Director:

Gonzalo Tapia

Writers:

Gonzalo Tapia (screenplay) and
Antonio Trashorras (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

11 May 2001 (Spain)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama

Plot:

Set in Galicia in northwest Spain - an area famed for its beauty and smuggling - this film shows a once-thriving...

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity

Cast

Manuel Manquiña	...	Gorrión
Marta Larralde	...	Lena
Roberto Álvarez	...	Milio
Vítor Norte	...	Cachero
Luis Tosar	...	Gitano
Iván Hermés	...	Manu
Luis Zahera	...	Antonio
Carlos Kaniowsky	...	Esteban
Antón Reixa	...	Fernández
Nuria Sanz	...	Mariola
Irene García Bustos	...	Carmen
Israel Rodríguez	...	Toño
Andrés Fraga	...	Sebe
Josito Porto	...	Ramón
Carmen Segarra	...	Mujer

Runtime:

97 min | Argentina:108 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

Spain | Portugal

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Spain:13

Filming Locations:

Vigo, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain

Company:

Tráfico de Ideas S.L.

Movie Connections:

References El gran marciano (2001)

Entertaining

A rather worrying situation, precisely because such is more than likely in innumerable large cities all over the place. In this case in Vigo, a city of about half a million inhabitants in Galicia, in the extreme north west of Spain. The city has had – with other nearby places – a long history associated with smuggling. In recent times cigarettes and alcohol, and, far more menacing, drugs. It is just a hop across the Atlantic from Colombia, and Vigo is the perfect gateway to Europe. Thus, in recent times, anti-drug police catch hauls in tons at one go, aboard ancient merchant vessels which have changed hands, flag of convenience and name about as frequently as you and I change our socks.

Lena's father, known as `Gorrión' (`Sparrow'), a waster if ever there was one, has got entangled in smuggling circles and is in a rather negative position; Lena, a teenager played by a somewhat over-age Marta Larralde, who, at twentyish just cannot go prancing about Vigo's neighbourhoods in skimpy fifteen-year-old clothing without turning a lot of eyes in her direction, has to lose out on her student grant so as to help her father out of his troubles, and she does so getting right in there with the traffickers; she ends up being a `camel' driven around in a plush Mercedes.

So a classical thriller setting, almost in the `noir' category, played out fairly well by Miss Larralde in her first ever film, and backed up by some more or less convincing thug-types of the underworld, and a stupendous casting of Lena's father – Manuel Manquiña.

An entertaining 90-odd minutes without purporting to be anything greater, so passable.

Some students of Spanish may have a little difficulty at times with understanding the dialogues and will have to fall back on the subtitles.