BELOW ZERO/ BAJOCERO

Spain, 2021, 106 minutes, Colour.
Javier Gutierrez, Karra Elejalde, Luis Callejo, Andres Gertrudix, Isak Ferriz, Edgar Vittorino, Patrick Criado.
Directed by Lluis Quilez.

Below Zero is a strong Spanish drama, a police drama. While it is focused on Spain and characters, the story and characters are universal.

There are two prologues, a hooded man threatening another, dragging him by chain to an open grave, burying him, demanding he give information about the location of a body. This will be crucial to the later development, the character of a former policeman, Miguel, the violent rape and assault on his 13-year-old daughter, the criminals disposing of her body but not revealing where it was. The second prologue focuses on Martin, with his wife and daughters in the car, his going to work, a family man, police, assigned to accompany six prisoners from one jail to another.

The film then introduces the six prisoners, their being checked, getting onto the bus, separate cells, one of the police sitting in the back of the bus, Martin driving.

It is night, cold, spikes are put along the road, the company police car veers and crashes, the bus also swerves and comes to a standstill. The accompanying policeman in the back gets out, is wounded, later revives, finds Miguel’s car, tries to shoot Miguel as he drives the bus, crashes.

The main drama is in the back of the bus, Miguel making radio contact with one of the prisons, the ambush being planned, and eventually, revealed, that the target is a young man who was the companion of the initial victim, a rapist who knows where Miguel’s daughter’s body lies. However, in the fight on the back of the bus, he seems innocent and is put in the cell with Martin who has fought the other prisoners asserting his integrity as a police officer.

Included in the other prisoners are a crooked politician, an actor on hard times who is taken to burglary, a drug addict, a man who has taken vengeance on his sister’s rapists, a Romanian thug.

The action is quite melodramatic, Miguel driving the bus, putting it on a frozen lake, shooting holes in the ice, the bus submerging, the attempts to open an emergency exit, Martin and two of the prisoners surviving leading to a showdown with Miguel and the revelation of the truth about the young man.

There is some criticism of the plausibility of the plot, especially with the cold, the lake, the immersion… However, the film has quite some tension, most of the characters emerging as more rounded characters than might have been expected, some climaxes and Martin, Javier Gutierrez, a man of integrity.

1. Title? Winter? The temperature? Snow and ice? Frozen lakes? The truck, the lack of heating? Immersion onto the ice?

2. A Spanish story? Universal story? Prisoners? Transfer? Police? Dangers? The background story of the rape and violence, vengeance?

3. The prologue with the hooded man of vengeance, the attack on the victim, threats, his denials, dragged by the chain, buried in the grave? The later revelation about Miguel and his daughter?

4. The prologue, Martin, in the car, wife and family, his daughters, going to work?

5. Martin at work, the task, the change room and meeting Montesinos, conversation, driving to the prison, the six men, the transfer, clothes on the desk, body examination, dressed again, the different treatment of the men, mutterings and threats? Into the bus?

6. The setup of the bus, the cells, locked? Montesinos in the back, his seat? Martin driving, the surveillance in the back of the bus? The police, the car going ahead? Chains on the road, the police car crashing, deaths? The skidding of the bus?

7. Montesinos, getting out, search, wounded, collapse? Later waking, seeing the car, driving, shooting at the bus and the driver? Cat and mouse tactics? The crash and his death?

8. The behaviour of the men in their cells? Calling out, arguing? Ramis, the toilet, the concealed weapon, sharpening it? Interactions, the heat?

9. The different personalities: Ramis, the background of his being an actor, performing, singing at Martin’s wedding? The politician and the background of his crimes? The Romanian, tough? Pardo, drug addiction? Rei, his sister’s rape, getting revenge, her ring? Nano, young man, his self-defence?

10. The action in the truck, Ramis, the deal with Miguel, the radio contact? Miguel’s threats? The petrol and fire in the cells and the politician burning? The struggle and the brutal death of the Romanian? Nano, his violence, his being put in the cell with Martin? His story, seeming innocence? Arguments, threats? The reckless drive, the bus on the lake, Miguel shooting the ice, the bus beginning to sink? Rei, going to unblock the exit, the jolt, his head pierced? Pardo going down, the emergency exit? His freezing, death?

11. Martin, his role as a policeman, integrity, listening to the men, the fights, in the cell? The strategy of dealing with Miguel and the radio? The emergency exit, the opening, Ramis, Nano and Martin escaping? Onto the shore?

12. Martin, Ramis reviving him, Martin’s gratitude, listening to Ramis’s story, the opening of the restaurant in the Caribbean, Martin letting him go?

13. Miguel, his gun, shooting at nano? Martin following him, up the stairs, the confrontation with Miguel, the rifle, the fight? Martin and his integrity, to stop Miguel shooting Nano? Miguel, telling Martin the story, the rape of his daughter, the two men, the brutality, hiding her body, his wanting to know whether body was? Nano surviving, coming to Martin, Martin
threatening him, demanding that he tell whether body was, shooting him, shooting his hand, confessing? A satisfaction for Miguel?

14. The helicopters, the police, taking the two men – and the audience thinking of the justice to be done? In the finale, Martin, integrity, the long tracking shot of his walking out of the police station, authentic and having done his duty?