La sombra de la ley (2018)

In 1921 a tough cop is sent from Madrid to Barcelona to locate stolen military weaponry.

Director:

Dani de la Torre

Writer:

Patxi Amezcua

Stars:

Luis Tosar, Michelle Jenner, Vicente Romero

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Luis Tosar	...	Aníbal Uriarte
Michelle Jenner	...	Sara
Vicente Romero	...	Inspector Rediú
Manolo Solo	...	El Barón
Paco Tous	...	Salvador Ortiz
Jaime Lorente	...	León
Pep Tosar	...	Comisario Verdaguer
Ernesto Alterio	...	Tísico
Adriana Torrebejano	...	Lola
José Manuel Poga	...	Mallorquín
Fredi Leis	...	Beltrán
William Miller	...	García Serrano
Albert Pérez	...	Manco
Ricardo de Barreiro	...	Jefe de Turno
Paula del Río	...	Elisa

Storyline

In the hard and convulsive times of the Spain of 1921, Aníbal Uriarte is a veteran soldier of the Morocco War reconverted as cop who is send by his superior from Spain's capital Madrid to Barcelona (Catalonia, north-east to Spain) in order to locate an important amount of military weaponry from a train, stolen apparently by revolutionary anarchists. To his arrival to the city Uriarte meets Inspector Rediú, a corrupt officer together the violent Tísico and young Beltrán, and El Barón, owner of the famous cabaret Edén where he exploits to his dancers as Lola, filming in addition adult movies implying minors and lesbian women only for the high society's eyes. At the same time Salvador Ortiz is the leader of a peaceful riot in an important company of the city, in the fight by the workers' rights, and Salvador's daughter and telephone operator Sara leads her own revolution to defend women's rights. Learning quickly to move in a sea of conspirators, corrupts and traitors, Uriarte makes a ...

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Plot Keywords:

1920s | cabaret | homosexuality | corruption | corrupt cop | 

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Genres:

Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

Spain France

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

11 October 2018 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Gun City

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Company Credits

Production Co:

Atresmedia Cine,Atresmedia,Axencia Galega das Industrias Culturais (AGADIC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

126 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ernesto Alterio's character is named "Tísico" by his boss Rediú. Tísico is the Spanish word for "phthisic", a common word in those times to indicate a person who suffer tuberculosis.

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Goofs

Due to stringent gun control laws, movie prop departments in Spain face extraordinary difficulties obtaining period-appropriate weapons. In the first scene, in which a train is attacked in Barcelona in 1921, the firearms displayed by both sides are implausible and/or wildly anachronistic:

• M1 Garand rifle. Designed in 1936.
• M1 carbine. Designed in 1941.
• Sten sub-machine gun. Designed in 1941.
• MP 40 sub-machine gun. Designed in 1938.
• Lee Enfield rifle. While they existed in 1921, they were never in service in any Spanish law enforcement agency or the military, who were issued the ubiquitous Mauser bolt rifles and carbines.
• Thompson sub-machine gun. While they existed in 1921 (having been designed in 1918), they would have been unheard of in Spain, as they entered production that year and were sold in small quantities to some federal and Law enforcement agencies in the US, the Marines and some armies in Latin America.

Not only that, the defenders of the train, presumably military, display the above collection of firearms (except for the sub-machine guns, carried by the attackers), implausible for any uniformed body, who would have been issued the same model of rifle (in Spain, the Mauser family of rifles and carbines).

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Soundtracks

Hasta el último suspiro
Performed by Ainhoa Arteta

User Reviews

Worth Every Minute

This is a very good movie about how complicated the political and social situations were in Spain just after WWI. It is a lengthy movie (2hrs +) but every minute is worthy to be watched.

The story is quite balanced tho, it does not have excessive conversations or any other boring parts, so the length of the movie goes quite entertaining, some of it went into well-preformed action. Some scenes had some intensive situations and the crew succeeded in bringing it with precision and professionality.

All characters played their roles perfectly. Adding this to the excellent pictures and effects make one respects the efforts of the director Dani de la Torre.

I would like to watch it again some time, definitely! 9/10.