NIGHT OF THE SUNFLOWERS

Spain, 2006, 123 minutes, Colour.
Carmelo Gomez, Judith Diakhate, Celso Bugallo, Vicente Romero, Walter Vidarte.
Directed by Jorge Sanchez- Cabezudo.

This is a most carefully plotted thriller, intriguing as it moves from episode to episode and from character to character. After a prologue where the audience sees a middle aged man responsible for the death of a young woman whose body he leaves in a field of sunflowers, the film moves into separate chapters with characters whom we have momentarily glimpsed during the prologue. Though the film is not difficult to follow, it is best to have your wits about you as each chapter has some initial backtracking in its timeline.

In some ways, the initial murder is something of a distraction. The plot goes in other directions. The first chapter shows a man, a travelling salesman, in a motel. We follow him in his work and watch him take a by-road that was suggested for better business. Here he sees a young woman alone in the woods. The next chapter concerns a group of caving experts (unfortunately the copy under review translated the word for caves as ‘potholes’ for the subtitles!). The young woman is the wife of the leader who has come to the village to explore a newly discovered cave. This becomes important as the cavers see a man on the road and make wrong assumptions about his assaulting the woman and they attack him.

The next chapter concerns ‘the proper authorities’. This title has a more than a touch of irony as the local policeman is not at all proper in his life. However, his father-in-law who is the police chief is. In the next chapter, Mad Amos, an old man of the vicinity comes with reports of a murder which confuse the police. Finally, in the last chapter, dedicated to the father-in-law, the pieces all come together in a shrewd investigation of what really happened.

The end is also dramatically satisfying (but still morally ambiguous) as we glimpse each of the main characters and assess how these events have changed them. The man from the motel also arrives home to his family.

Very well acted, expertly plotted with a lot to offer about personal dilemmas, moral choices and the changing society of Spain.

1.An award-winning film? Popular? Crime thriller? Social thriller, psychological? Moral thriller?

2.The Spanish settings, the atmosphere of the countryside, the remoteness, the villages, the mountains and caves? The cello score?

3.The title, the introduction, the fields, the murderer and the car, the body, its discovery?

4.The structure of the film: the different chapters, the different points of view, the retracking in time, continuity, the strength and detail of the plotting?

5.The prologue, the girl in the field, the police, the glimpse of the police, the glimpse of Esteban and Gabi, of Cecilio, of Beni?

6.The chapter: man in the motel: his watching the television, the information about the murder, the passing of two weeks, his phone call and talking to home, as a salesman, offering the girl the lift, her boyfriend, the hostility, his discussion with the manager, trying to promote the sales of the vacuum cleaners, his lunch, meeting the boyfriend, his advice, suggestion to go to the quarry, the village, his driving, his seeing the girl in the town, in the van, following her? Parking the car, seeing the girl alone, his attack on her, the brutality, her wounding him in the hand, her escape, in the car, his bashing on the car, trying to get in, having taken the keys? The crash, the horn, the voices and his leaving?

7.The cave experts: Esteban, his arrival in the town, the meeting, the others delayed, the discussion about the caves, Beni finding the cave, wanting it named after him? Phoning Gabi about the equipment, Pedro coming, the arrival? Going to the cave, the exploration, Pedro and his photography, Esteban and his skills, climbing? Gabi back in the village, waiting, her driving out, the retracking of the episode of the attack, her being found?

8.The man on the road: his personality, his going into town to buy supplies, cantankerous, the clashes with Amos, setting the traps, walking along the road, being pursued by Esteban and his friends, the confrontation in the house, his getting the gun, the shooting, the pitchfork, Pedro attacking him, his death, setting him up, cleaning the house, taking him away? The moral dilemma?

9.The proper authorities: the focus on Tomas, his liaison with the married woman, his wanting to get out of it, her taunts? Not long married, the relationship with his wife? His father-in-law? Accompanying him on his rounds? The tension in the house, his going back to the woman? Drinking, his driving, finding the group with the van? His stopping, being sick, his interrogating the three? His going outside, thinking, his plan and proposal, Pedro and Gabi and their reactions, Esteban and his principles, his threat of prison? Persuading them that the cover-up could happen? Their cleaning up the house, taking the body, going into the cave, dropping the body into the well? The cover-up?

10.Amos: the police, at work, the various reports, Amos and his wandering around, his clashes with Cecilio, finding the traps, the dog injured, going into the house, seeing the body, his reports, his own personal madness, going to the cemetery and talking to people in the graves, Thomas and his trying to persuade his father-in-law that nothing was wrong, his explanations of Amos’s madness? The background of Thomas’s wife, her sickness, pregnancy, telling her father-in-law?

11.The alligator: a nickname for the police chief, his listening to the reports, the evidence, the dead body, the accident, his searching for clues, questions, the various visits? Thomas’s reply? Going home to the family, Thomas’s report about Cecilio having been sighted?(*or cited?) The old man waiting, following Thomas, the three out in the countryside, the fire, his confrontation, burning the money? His willingness to have the cover-up? His resignation?

12.The focus at the end on each of the main characters and their future? The effect on Pedro, his cowardice and greed, fear? Gabi and Esteban and their dishonesty, their relationship, the loss of the money? Thomas and his wife, his father-in-law’s hold over him? The disillusionment of the father-in-law? Amos and his collecting Cecilio’s things?

13.The man in the motel, his arriving home, his continuing on his life?

14.The film and its observations of human nature, food for thought, posing of moral dilemmas? Its portrait of Spain – and rural changes?