El viaje de Arián

Pretty good drama about the terrorist organization ETA that brutally killed about one thousand people and proceeding similarly to Sicilian Mafia, set in Basque Country of the eighties . It contains interesting scenes , great vibration , thrilling images and sensitive moments . Drama/Thriller about sad events in Basque Country in which happened terrorism , kidnaps of prominent people , threats and grisly killings . Spain, The Basque Country or Pais Vasco , sometime in the 80s . The society is frightened by murders organized by the Basque extremists and mobster extortion , while Policia, Guardia Civil and military suffer a risked situation , being really massacred . This increases the sorrow of victims, as they feel the criminals can persist in their terror strategy . Arián (Ingrid Rubio) is a young member of the terrorist organization ETA who works as an informer and is in love with an activist (Abel Folk) . Arián is an idealistic young woman who wrongly believes is acting well for her people . Hoping to demostrate her commitment with the terrorist band , Arian volunteers to take part in a kidnapping and she helps in abducting Isabel (Laia Marull) , the daughter of a wealthy businessman . Later on, Isabel faces difficult choice , she has to make a thorny decision between two things she could do.

Moving drama/thriller with plenty of emotion , suspense , intrigue , delusions , plot twists , and real events about Basque Country . It is an entertaining picture in which suspense is well developed from start to finish , being somewhat of a cinematic cliché, rarely has a feature been so aptly deserving of its description as a thriller picture along with some elements from action genre , politics , engaging drama and bloody terrorism . The story is well paced and director makes a decent flick, being his best movie , it is an acceptable yarn, though slow-moving, and tiring, at times. Here Interpreters provided a considerable boost to the result . Ingrid Rubio gives a fine acting as the naive young of Basque heritage who falls with a terrorist in an intense love story while fighting along with the band and eventually she's still in a dilemma about whether she should make or not a lethal assignment . She is finely accompanied by a good remaning cast as Abel Folk , Silvia Munt , Carlos Díaz , Laia Marull and special mention for Txema Blasco and María Alfonsa Rosso playing her parents delivering enjoyable interpretations .

There are various films about the terrorist organization ETA , such as : "La fuga de Segovia", "La muerte de Mikel", and ¨Dias contados¨ by Imanol Uribe , ¨A Ciegas¨ by Daniel Calpasoro , ¨Todos Estamos invitados¨ by Manuel Gutierrez Aragon , "Yoyes" by Helena Taberna, ¨La voz de su amo¨ by Martinez Lazaro, ¨El Padre de Cain¨ by Salvador Calvo , ¨Trece entre mil¨ by Arteta and ¨El Viaje de Arián¨ is more a thriller than a political or denounce film. This "El Viaje de Arian" bears more remarkable resemblance to "Yoyes" than the others . But it would have been necessary many more movies that portray the life of those that have been threatened for opposing to the nationalist mafia, to advance in the fight against terror, and those films should have been made twenty years before.

A timely movie, dealing with ETA, the infamous Basque terrorists who have again stepped up their campaign in Spain and France. To make a "meaningful" yet entertaining film about this, one does, what else? A moral dilemma drama.

In it, Arian is a young activist, in love with her marionettes and Vivaldi-a veteran ETA member. One day, she is asked to work as an informant for this terrorist group to obtain information about a woman whom they plan to kidnap. Arian remembers her fathers saying, "I've always been willing to die, but not kill for my country." However, she joins the group after all and her life starts heading into a dead-end street.

The film is worth watching not only for its subject matter, but for the excellent ensemble cast, headed by Ingrid Rubio, arguably Spain's best young dramatic actress.

I saw this film last and and I must say that I was very dissapointed. It is boring and the film does not even reach the two hour point. The characters were not that interesting and you really don't come to care about them. The film does not really open you up to the lives of these terrorists. It seems a bit cardboard as opposed to real warmth. Anyway, I don't recommend it.