Frozen Silence (2011)

How do you find a murderer amidst the chaos, death and destruction of the Second World War? On the Russian Front in the harsh winter of 1943, a series of bodies, hideously mutilated and ... See full summary »

Director:

Gerardo Herrero

Writers:

Nicolás Saad (adaptation), Ignacio del Valle (novel)

Stars:

Juan Diego Botto, Carmelo Gómez, Víctor Clavijo

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Juan Diego Botto	...	Arturo Andrade
Carmelo Gómez	...	Sargento Espinosa
Víctor Clavijo	...	Estrada
Jordi Aguilar	...	Cabo Aparicio
Gabriele Malinauskaite	...	Zira
Sergi Calleja	...	Tiroliro
Rafa Castejón	...	Isart
Francesc Orella	...	Reyes Zarauza
Jorge de Juan	...	Paramio
Carlos Blanco	...	Pater Ramón
Javier Mejía	...	Capitán Larios
Deividas Balinskis	...	Aleksander
Manu Hernández	...	Pablito
Toni Hernández	...	Servando
Adolfo Fernández	...	Navajas del Río

Storyline

How do you find a murderer amidst the chaos, death and destruction of the Second World War? On the Russian Front in the harsh winter of 1943, a series of bodies, hideously mutilated and carved with bizarre symbols and messages, are discovered. Arturo, a world-weary police inspector, now serving his country in the brutal regime of the military, makes it his personal mission to track down the killer, a cunning, vicious entity seemingly intent on making known a diabolical master plan, one that may lead to the very top of the chain of command, threatening the very direction of the war.

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Plot Keywords:

feeding baby | sex scene | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

Spain Lithuania

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

20 January 2012 (Spain)

Also Known As:

El rostro del asesino

Box Office

Budget:

€1,380,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Castafiore Films, Lietuvos Kinostudija, Lithuanian Film Studio

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

good intent, bad result

It's interesting someone use as background to his narrative one aspect that most want to forget. The presentation of a thriller with the background given by the participation of the Blue Division in World War II allows the director to skip the obvious ideological implications and to present, however, an important part of the history of Spain. But unfortunately this is the only merit of the film. The performances are uneven, but are acceptable in the context of an idea or clever narrative presented in innovative ways, as the latter does not occur even the good performances are diluted. The plot is held until the outcome has to be solved, and the outcome is poor, simplistic and devoid of any emotional impact. The effort of costumes is valuable, but the value of production falls dramatically when using badly the obvious limits of a short budget. Maybe have been wiser to use the limited mount of powder that were available to make a convincing explosion in the only place that was necessary for the narrative and not a string of micro-explosions resulting almost pathetic. The wink that makes to the stereotype Nazi evil-murderer, probably with the sole purpose of to be nice with those who could not see with good eyes a film focused on the active participation of Spanish volunteers on the wrong side, as history tells us , could be accepted considering that every film needs funding, but it is less acceptable that support the whole plot, making it obvious and not very sustainable from logic. Understanding that the director make a huge effort to avoid by all means that his movie looks like pro Falangist, for sure he want to continue filming in the future, it too exceeds to present Spanish soldiers in a very Hollywood logic "horrible war that I do here," forgetting the immense historical fact that all who were enrolled in the Blue Division were volunteers, nationalist and Falangist, who considered themselves as part of a crusade of new type. In conclusion, and this is the meaning of this review, I advise you watch the movie with great generosity, especially valuing the fact that someone dares to tell a story accepting that there was also a B-side in WWII that is equally valid as background for human stories, but having clear that neither the human nor the story here presented have outstanding intrinsic qualities, and the director, less that all of them.