, when a serial killer is on the loose. Two homicide detectives from Madrid who appear to be poles apart must settle their differences and bring the murderer to justice before more teenage girls lose their lives.
Visually and atmospherically, Marshland is suffused with an eerie oppressiveness, entirely at odds with the region's reputation for light-hearted alegria.
Even if it stays true to the conventions of the crime drama, it dares to explore complicated themes of the political and social issues of the time its set on. [Full review in Spanish]
The elegant widescreen compositions and use of light and shadows are strongly reminiscent of Seven and Zodiac, and the film's eerie, disconcerting mood brings to mind HBO's True Detective.
Brilliant noir policier in a distinctive environment where the fraught political and economic circumstances hang over the solution to a shocking crime.
While we're still pretending that True Detective season 2 didn't happen, we have Alberto Rodríguez's thriller Marshland to satisfy our yearning for moody detectives investigating a disturbing case that shakes their faith in humanity.
A couple of mismatched cops in the immediate post-Franco era investigate the brutal murders of two teenage girls in Alberto Rodriguez's satisfyingly atmospheric neo-noir.
Whilst its broad plot might be a touch too neat, Marshland manages to say quite a lot about entrenched neglect and ignorance both within and without systems of power
