Black Beach

Dear Sir/Madam, Concha Campins appears as Producer, she was only Production Manager during a small part of shooting in Ghana, please make correction

5.2? That seems extradinarily low for an entertaining, tense and decent budget Netflix movie. Ok, the first half is slow, admittedly, but from then on you have a very exciting and tense thriller, up there with Hollywood production quality. The story is basic, as one might expect with a thriller, but the characters are decently acted and the script is enough to keep your attention, without any boring bits. I would give this a 7.5, but as halfs aren't allowed, I bumped it up to an 8. It is worth a watch.

The film directed by the Spanish filmmaker Esteban Crespo who takes us to the deepest Africa through a story of action and international entanglements . Carlos (Raul Arevalo) is a Spanish CEO who lives in Brussels (Belgium) working for an important USA oil company. He is a businessman who gets a request to intercede on behalf of a US engineer in the oil industry who's been kidnapped. Married with a 8-months pregnant Susan and with his mother Elena (Paulina Garcia) who works as a veteran United Nations' diplomatic, Carlos' lives in a upper-class full of luxury hoping to turn in associate of the company and with plan to move with Susan (Melina Matthews) to New York City to get a better life. Carlos decided to undertake a perilous mission but her own spirit and mind will take on an ominous reality. His plans turn bad when his bosses chose him to negotiate in a remote African island country where he lived time ago after to know that Steve Campbell, an American engineer, has been kidnapped by Calixto Batete (Jimmy Castro) , a former Carlos' friend. In the belief to be a fast and easy work, Carlos back to the country living in a house property of LeónLeón Ndong (Emilio Buale) , son of president Gregorio Ndong, and meeting again Alejandra (Candela Pela) , a Spanish NGO cooperator who lives in a boat with her friend and assistant Eva. However, troubles starts to appear by everywhere: Carlos learns that Ada, Carlos' former love interest, married Calixto and she was arrested and imprisoned in the Black Beach jail. Then we live a segment of the film where Carlos goes to visit his old girlfriend who remains locked up in prison. Black Beach is a prison in Equatorial Guinea where human rights are not respected and which gives the film its name. Carlos' attempt to know the truth causes that General Mba, Black Beach's warden, moves his soldiers following Carlos in idea that he find the files by him. Carlos visits Ada's mother Claudina in the desire to save Calixto before he be killed by Ndong's henchmen, but according time passes, Carlos finds himself in a race against time to locate the files with horrible consequences. Not finding the papers, Carlos escapes and returns to visit Mama Claudina to learn horrible happenings about all the residents of her building .

Brooding and thought-provoking flick concerning interesting themes, such as : Multinational corruption , illegal activities of oil companies , genocide of a local tribes, human exploitation by extreme labouring , horrible African conditions where life has not value and death shows up in every corner of the way , violent African wars causing massacre, destruction and chaos. Although the country Carlos is heading to is never mentioned, it can be concluded that it is Equatorial Guinea and we assume that due to political problems, Black Beach has been filmed on the coast of Ghana . Nothing to object to the chosen locations as they are excellent , they place the viewer inside and at the center of the plot , from now on , events precipitate in what already becomes a fast-paced action thriller, adding an impeccable technical wrap with an exciting musical score by Arturo Cardelús and a colorful cinematography by Ángel Amorós. The filmmaker's story already opts for only two options. The personal merges with the professional and Carlos faces the biggest dilemma of his life . He will have to choose between selling his soul to the devil or being able to look his son in the face tomorrow. The viewer will get involved depending on his ability to delve into a script that exudes a certain artificiality . Black Beach (locally also known as Playa Negra) is the name given to a prison located on the island of Bioko, in the capital city of Equatorial Guinea, Malabo. It is one of the most notorious prisons in Africa. Maln and support cast are pretty well. The best of Black Beach goes through the stunning actors in which Raúl Arevalo shines with his own light, playing Carlos , a businessman discovering a reality more dirty than he expected , as he finds out some grisly events more dirty than any remote African island country. A character very rich in nuances as a honest man who sacrifices himself for the unfortunate African people and achieves a good evolution thanks to the script written by Esteban Crespo himself and David Moreno. A script that is also right with the character of Ale interpreted with the usual sympathy by Candela Peña who steals the show. She is an old friend of Carlos and helps him move around the country with the mission of unraveling why and how the businessman everyone is looking for has been kidnapped. The other characters are at the service of the main protagonist. The presence of Melina Matthews stands out as Carlos's wife. She is about to give birth and represents the grieving wife. Another interesting character is the son of the president of the African country. He receives our starring with luxury cars, women at his disposal and cocaine served on a silver platter. Giving a good performance Emilio Buale who was already nominated for Best New Actor at the Goya for El hoyo . Along with a nice support cast such as : Paulina García as Elena , Babou Cham as General Guillermo Mba and Jimmy Castro as Calixto.

The first thing that surprises in Black Beach is the absolute change of register of its director. It should be remembered that we are talking about the second film by Spanish filmmaker Esteban Crespo. In his previous film, titled "Love", the intimate side with which he focused on love in adolescence prevailed. Estebán Crespo is a good craftsman , a writer , director known for Lala (2009), Nadie tiene la culpa (2011) y Aquel no era yo (2012). Black Beach(2020) rating : 7/10. Better than average.

I reckon there is a literal black beach (so obviously no pun intended with the title), but there is more to the movie than a landscape ... a location if you will. I reckon the beach can stand for something - the title can give you a clue of the darkness of fate and the struggle to do the right thing.

On the other hand you can also argue that that would be reading too much into it. And you probably would be right with that. The acting is good, the script is or rather seems tight. Still I can't help but feel that there could have been more ... I can't put my finger on it (and I rather wouldn't want to do that anyway, no pun intended) ... but there seems to be some untapped source here ... again no pun intended.

Still the movie has tension and it holds up from start to finish. Even if you feel that certain decisions may not be the wisest ... life is live as they say (they do say that, right?)

Well done, good mix of action, good plot twists, characters have some depth, worth watching