La noche de los girasoles (2006)

Director:

Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo

Writer:

Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo (writer)

Release Date:

25 August 2006 (Spain)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Salesman | Goat Herder | Murder Confession | Adultery | Moral Principles

Awards:

5 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Carmelo Gómez	...	Esteban
Judith Diakhate	...	Gabi
Celso Bugallo	...	Amadeo
Manuel Morón	...	Vendedor
Mariano Alameda	...	Pedro
Vicente Romero	...	Tomás
Walter Vidarte	...	Amós
Cesáreo Estébanez	...	Cecilio
Fernando Sánchez-Cabezudo	...	Beni
Petra Martínez	...	Marta
Nuria Mencía	...	Raquel
Enrique Martínez	...	Julián
Mariano Peña	...	Rovira
Amalia Hornero	...	Rosa
Luís Mascarenhas	...	Federico

Also Known As:

Angosto (International: English title) (Spain) (working title)
The Night of the Sunflowers (Ireland: English title) (UK)
La nuit des tournesols (France)

Runtime:

123 min

Country:

Spain | France | Portugal

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Ireland:16 | UK:15 | Finland:K-15 | Netherlands:16

Company:

Alta Films

Soundtrack:

Un compromiso

The butterfly effect adapted to the Spanish psychology

"La noche de los girasoles" begins with a meeting by chance, between a rapist and murderer, and his next victim. The rapist will try to victimize a young woman, and who she is and where it all takes place play a decisive part in the violent events that will ensue.

So this movie has several strong points. One of them is showing how someone completely unrelated to the rest of the main characters of the story, someone who meets one of those people (the young woman) by chance, can be the trigger for all we're about to see. Then, the structure is very attractive too, as the director tries to make full portraits of each important character and show us, not only what they're doing there, but where they come from, in every sense; he shows us what that person is like, their personality and motivations, and what they want, basically; then he drops that character into the spiral of events that have been started by the attack to the young woman, and so comes this suspenseful story, involving two speleologists, the girlfriend of their leader, a very honest and stern old cop and a dishonest, corrupt young one, and two old men who live in an otherwise derelict village.

Something else I liked about the movie is the fact that it shows how absurd and ungrounded violence is; all acts of violence in the movie are completely gratuitous and coming solely from human primal instincts. The violence comes from a lack of communication and a desire for power and beating the opponent.

As is the case with many Spanish movies, the ending lacks momentum and power, but works quite well, in any case, and makes much sense.