La isla de las mentiras

Loosely inspired by the tragedy of January 2, 1921, in which the ship Santa Isabel sank near the Galician island of Sálvora, with 260 passengers on board, the film aims to clear the memory of three local women, who put to sea to rescue the shipwrecked, rescuing fifty survivors.

Unfortunately, someone looted the corpses, depriving them of valuables, raising suspicions about Sálvora's heroines and their motivations.

From this truthful basis, an argument was constructed that speculates a complex web of intrigues and interests, involving the island's powerful people and absolving the heroines of the accusations raised. But the intrigue seems far-fetched and unlikely. The resurrection of ghosts from ancient times, of coastal piracy.

What remains of the film is the heavy and claustrophobic environment of the Galician islands, already explored in other films, and which actually has something magical about it, so close and simultaneously so far away that those inhospitable lands are from the mainland, due to the bad weather and the scarcity of resources. The isolation is atrocious, causing terrible psychological tension in its rude inhabitants.

Highlight is the performance by Nerea Barros, who lends her beauty to an angry and animalistic character, typical of a wild islander, tired of being exploited and incapable of expressing repressed feelings or desires.

An interesting work, as a psychological drama, but which fails in following a weak detective story.

In the early morning of January 2, 1921, amid a thick fog, the steam Santa Isabel, with 260 emigrants bound for Buenos Aires, sank off the rugged and rugged coast of the island of Sálvora in the northwest of Spain. That night there were no men on the island, they were celebrating Christmas on dry land. The only hope of the survivors who were struggling not to crash into the rocks were the few women, old men and children who lived in this place. Three young islanders, María (Nerea Barros), Josefa (Victoria Teijeiro) and Cipriana (Ana Oca), decide to launch into the sea in a small traditional boat. Rowing only by ear, due to the thick fog and the closed night, they manage to save 50 people. Everything that happens since that night is going to shake and change this island forever. Among the authorities who come to document the incident and the officials who will be photographed with the heroines, León Cofré (Darío Grandinetti), an Argentine journalist who investigates the case a little further, brings to light the secrets and sins of Sálvora and the shipwreck. But little by little he verifies that that night too many terrible "coincidences" happened on the island. There are many questions to be solved. The initially three heroines become alleged suspects so there is an investigation into possible looting of the ship.

Based on actual events happened in the early morning of January 2, 1921, when amid a thick fog, the steam Santa Isabel, with 260 emigrants bound for Buenos Aires, sank off the rugged and rugged coast of the island of Sálvora, when most of the men inland by New Year's Day, there three women in a boat try to save as many as they can, and manage to bring a few dozen castaways ashore. The fiction film debut of Paula Cons, a story that certainly touches on the social, political and moral aspects of the time, the exploitation of the inhabitants of the province isolated that remain in an almost semi-wild state. However, her inexperience is more than evident, as the film fails partially to adequate the necessary developing of the "mystery", which is largely revealed to us in the introduction, while before the halfway point the last questions have been answered. As a result, most of the film functions, unsuccessfully, as an ancient tragic irony. That is, you just wait for the protagonists to learn what you really know from the beginning, without surprises in between or even some rudimentary plot. Actors give decent acting, Dario Grandinetti provides a nice acting as an Argentine journalist named León, goes to Sálvora to cover the news of the shipwreck, as well as Nerea Barros, Aitor Luna and Celso Bugallo.

The main advantage of The Island of Lies are the wild landscapes of Galicia well photographed by cameraman Aitor Mantxola that fit perfectly with the wild characters of the protagonists, but these are wasted with the quality of the television production as a whole, from the script, the performances, the photography and the few effects, which are more reminiscent of the well-known films dealing with coastal townspeople taking advantage of shipwrecks that occur voluntarily or involuntarily, such as: ¨Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn¨ , ¨Friz Lang's Moofleet¨ or ¨John Gilling's Fury at Smugglers' Bay¨.

The motion picture was professionally written and directed by Paula Cons. She previously made a documentary La batalla desconocida (2017) about the "Battle of tungsten" that the Allies fought against Spain over that metallic element, which was essential for the wartime industries during WW2. Rating: 6/10.

This is not a 'true story'. Based around the 1921 wreck of the Santa Isabel off the island of Salvora in northern Spain, the wreck itself and the heroism of the women are historical fact. The murder, the investigative journalist and the darker story which emerges, are film-makers' inventions, partly based on rumours for which there was never any evidence. Actual events were still more extraordinary (for example the real rescue-heroine Maria, in the film the main character, was only 14 years old) but this works well enough as a piece of fiction.

The atmosphere is strong, all colours muted, all dresses black, with a relentless feeling of remoteness, even though the island is only 5km from the Spanish Coast. The men work on the mainland and rarely visit, so, following the wreck, it is left to three women to mount a rescue. They save over 50 but 200 others die and some of their bodies seem to have been looted and mutilated. A journalist stays on the island to uncover the 'truth' of what happened, with a suspenseful and plausible mystery then emerging.

Acting is good throughout, especially Nerea Baros, in the lead, giving a brooding and angry, yet subtle and restrained performance. The pacing may be slow for some, but the wild, bleak scenery (this seems to have been shot at least partly on the island) helps build a grim atmosphere of repression and intimidation. I found events difficult to follow at times, mostly down to poor subtitling on the copy I viewed, with long speeches left untranslated and some titles disappearing before they could be read.

All in all a solid interesting film, well made and directed and well worth watching.