This is a stirring portrait of illegal work and human exploitation from Africa, particularly from Morroco and Sub-Saharian countries to Europa through ¨Pateras¨ or other ways . Interesting drama with emotion , a love story and racist elements ; including enjoyable performances , with roles very well developed . After living in Madrid for many years as a teacher , Lucia (Cuca Escribano) along with her daughter Clara return to her hometown after her father's death results in the inheritance of his tomato farm , being grown in Greenhouse or ¨Invernaderos¨ . There Lucia re-finds her childhood and befriends new people as Perla (Mariola Fuentes). While confronting the community's racism toward the new illegal workers , Lucia falls in love with the farm's accountant , Curro (Jose Coronado) . Curro is a loner who dreams to buy a house to put a bar ¨Chiringuito¨ called Poniente . The couple is forced to take on the bigotry of the town and as tensions come to head , such as her troublesome relationship with her brother-in-law (Antonio Dechent) and her foreman (Antonio De La Torre) . But the events go wrong until a final tragedy .
This is an exciting picture plenty of passion , emotion , human relationships and many other things . The movie explores issues of racism and bigotry by examining the way in which a society reacts to the appearance of a foreign presence . It is an examination of sensitivity contemporary , social and political concerns . From start to finish the intense drama , thrills , emotion and surprises are continuous . Interesting and moving screenplay by actress/director Iciar Bollain and the same Cuca Escribano . The picture concerns about entrepreneurs that abuse on African people , taking place issues about human traffic , xenophobia and racism in which white roles predominate and African characters provide background . Enjoyable love story between Lucia/Cuca Escribano and Curro/Jose Coronado a man who shares her cause ; both of whom they will have to make some decisions that could cost them everything . It deals with deceived emigrants who arrive in Spain aboard ¨Pateras¨ and rotten ships or as stowaways ; they are without the proper papers and without a penny to their name . African immigrants sometimes find bad-paid , part-time work ; it is the kind of work that only illegal immigrants can get . This can be the story of many faceless and nameless immigrants in any country that live in sub-human conditions or ¨Pisos Patera¨ and face uphill challenges all the way through their illegal immigration . This brooding as well as moving flick can be defined as a thought-provoking drama , an exciting fresco with emotion , racism and a social fable . It contains enjoyable and interesting moments as the picture is more a drama than a denounce-film . Anyway, its is compensated with the great performances as the cast gets credible and nuanced acting that enrich the flick . This film grabs our attention , beginning with a really masterful performance by Jose Coronado and Cuca Escribano . Cuca gives a perfect interpretation as a nice teacher with dark secrets who attempts to help African people with unexpected consequences . Jose Coronado is simply awesome , he steals the show as strange man on his own dreams . Coronado has an important career plenty of successes such as Box 507 , The body , La Vida Mancha and especially ¨No peace for the wicked¨ .
Other films concerning illegal immigration result to be the followings : ¨Bwana¨ (1996) by Imanol Uribe with Andres Pajares , Maria Barranco , ¨Cartas a Alou¨ (1990) by Montxo Armendariz with Mulie Jarju and Eulàlia Ramon and ¨Ilegal¨ (2003) by Ignacio Vilar with Chisco Amado , Lucia Jimenez and Chete Lera . Catching musical score filled with African , gypsy and Andalucian songs by Tao Gutiérrez and Ángel Luis Samos . The movie packs a colorful and brilliant cinematography by Carlos Gusi who ha photographed successes such as ¨Torrente, the dumb arm of the law¨, ¨Juan De Los Muertos¨ , ¨Take my eyes¨ and particularly ¨Cell 211¨ . And being filmed on location in Torrenueva , Carchuna , Motril, Granada , Las Salinas ,Cabo de Gata , Almería , Andalucía . The yarn is always dramatic as well as entertaining when is executed with style and the filmmaker certainly seems to have that . The motion picture was professionally directed by Chus Gutiérrez . She is one of the best Spanish directors who ha realized some good films such as ¨Alma Gitana¨, ¨Insomnio¨ ¨Calentito¨ and ¨Retorno a Hansal¨ also dealing with illegal immigration and a similar cast as Cuca Escribano , Antonio Dechent and Antonio De La Torre .
