Marshland

(Alberto Rodriguez/2014/Spain)

Marshland is a gripping crime mystery with a socio-political subtext that lifts it above normal, run of the mill cop drama fare. The methodical unravelling of the story behind the murder of two teenage girls in the swampland of the Guadalquivir River leads to a radical change in awareness and conscience of one the investigating officers. And so his relationship with his partner is altered forever. Made in the same year as the first season of True Detective you’d be forgiven for thinking the Spanish writers of Marshland were in some kind of mental synchronicity with those of the renowned TV series in the U.S. There are so many overlaps in style, setting and storyline I won’t begin to list them but the similarity of the area south west of Seville to the deep south of America is uncanny.

The shadow of Franco hangs over the lives of everyone in the film and the direct references to the past in many of the scenes build to a subtle but overriding implication. For a country or in this case a village, to transition from a traumatic phase of history then accountability and justice are integral parts of the healing of that trauma. The bigger question leading from this, on a human level, is if a person can exonerate themselves of previous bad deeds by being a better person and doing good to balance the karmic books. Can real forgiveness take place in the absence of justice for past sins?

A nice trick by Rodriguez is to use overhead shots at distance to visually notch the narrative every time something of significance occurs or is said. It’s quite a layered film with plenty going on underneath the story being presented onscreen to keep you musing long after the credits.

(3.5/5)