"la isla minima" is a great movie about those type of places everyone wants out due to lack of opportunities. Placing this at the beggining of the 80's right after franco's dictatorship (i'm portuguese and we're actually were in very similar periods in these times) gives the extra conflict and darkness to the movie, because everyone was 1 - pretty much ashamed to talk about things "outside normality" and 2 -having an utmost respect for leaders and rulers no matter how corrupt or shady they were - unfortunatly both portugal and spain still suffer this mostly in small places like the one depicted here, ewhere everyone knows and needs each other to get into something.
the movie starts very well by in one scene giving the viewer enough information about the difference between both characters: one way more used to this type of mechanics and the other trying to break them out: the scene where both talk to the police is very self explanatory and interesting because in less than one minute we realized how different these guys were: right at the beggining of the film. the movie doesn't need a lot of explanation to why these characters are different and gives them a good meaning just in few small details: the characterization of both policemen was really well done.
then this was shot beautifully: there are big camera shots where we can see all the action in front of us, glorious panoramics towards the fields, a deep sense of claustrophobia in open air, like we feel why people want to move from there: we feel they're inside a "hole" - this also has amazing cinematography, the colors here are astonishing and the music depicts very well the state of abandonment these people feel. technically is flawless is one of the most beautiful movies i saw recently without any doubt. it also shows some historical context by giving the "party period" of the village and worker's strikes that i thing were interesting to follow.
now the plot: it's not bad not by any means but... i don't believe is the strongest point. the pace is good even though this moves slow (it had to and it works completely) but it then works almost like a procedural tv show: they see "x" talk to "y" gather evidence, talk to "y again" and then reach a conclusion. i don't think this is bad per se but there's no more characters to follow besides the two policemen. all the characters around them serve just one purpose: to move the plot forward or to enhance the conflicts they have with themselves or each other. i didn't find any character with sould and deepness besides the main two. that and an ending that doesn't satisfy completely, even though it's not bad - again, are the two points against it.
the film won several awards and deserves them mostly from the technical standpoint. the background story about the history period this took place was also well done - and i think it's because of that this film won several screenplay awards. for the procedural per se i do think it fells short and should have taken other narrative options - and having more solid characters besides the main two. I might change the grade later, it's almost an 8 for me. but since i found the plot a bit predictable i'll stick with a seven for now.
the movie starts very well by in one scene giving the viewer enough information about the difference between both characters: one way more used to this type of mechanics and the other trying to break them out: the scene where both talk to the police is very self explanatory and interesting because in less than one minute we realized how different these guys were: right at the beggining of the film. the movie doesn't need a lot of explanation to why these characters are different and gives them a good meaning just in few small details: the characterization of both policemen was really well done.
then this was shot beautifully: there are big camera shots where we can see all the action in front of us, glorious panoramics towards the fields, a deep sense of claustrophobia in open air, like we feel why people want to move from there: we feel they're inside a "hole" - this also has amazing cinematography, the colors here are astonishing and the music depicts very well the state of abandonment these people feel. technically is flawless is one of the most beautiful movies i saw recently without any doubt. it also shows some historical context by giving the "party period" of the village and worker's strikes that i thing were interesting to follow.
now the plot: it's not bad not by any means but... i don't believe is the strongest point. the pace is good even though this moves slow (it had to and it works completely) but it then works almost like a procedural tv show: they see "x" talk to "y" gather evidence, talk to "y again" and then reach a conclusion. i don't think this is bad per se but there's no more characters to follow besides the two policemen. all the characters around them serve just one purpose: to move the plot forward or to enhance the conflicts they have with themselves or each other. i didn't find any character with sould and deepness besides the main two. that and an ending that doesn't satisfy completely, even though it's not bad - again, are the two points against it.
the film won several awards and deserves them mostly from the technical standpoint. the background story about the history period this took place was also well done - and i think it's because of that this film won several screenplay awards. for the procedural per se i do think it fells short and should have taken other narrative options - and having more solid characters besides the main two. I might change the grade later, it's almost an 8 for me. but since i found the plot a bit predictable i'll stick with a seven for now.