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Marshland (2014)

Marshland (2014)

Two detectives hunt down a serial killer in one of Spain’s Deep South towns

7.4

Movie

Spain
Spanish, Turkish
Crime, Mystery, Thriller
2014
ALBERTO RODRÍGUEZ
Adelfa Calvo, Ana Tomeno, Ángela Vega
105 min

TLDR

It’s not True Detective or Memories of a Murder, but it’s a must watch for fans of detective murder mysteries.

What it's about

Spain, 1980s. After criticizing a Spanish general for his actions under the Francoist dictatorship, detective Pedro is assigned a double homicide case in a backwater town on the Guadalquivir Marshes with Juan as his case partner, leading to a hunt for a serial killer in the swampland.

The take

When a regime falls, what follows isn’t a clean slate– it lingers, and it haunts those that were able to survive, part due to what was done to them and part to what they have done. Marshland ostensibly is a police procedural investigating a series of women murdered in rural Spain, but it’s also a clash of ideologies between New Spain, that wants to unearth the injustices that haven’t been acknowledged, and Old Spain, that wants to let sleeping dogs lie. The two plot threads don’t weave together as neatly as it could be, but La Isla Minima still works on both fronts, recreating that feeling of betrayal within that key transition period of Spain.

What stands out

The Guadalquivir Marshes. Most people outside the country might have seen Madrid and Barcelona on film, but it’s nice to see the rural side of Spain.

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