Campo de sangre

Mr. Gabriel Arbos manages both film direction and production in a very personal manner, thanks to years of experience as an assistant director. Although his first feature film as a director responded to an industrial proposal (where nevertheless he already demonstrated personnal skills as a intrigue master), "Campos de sangre" might be described as a more personal movie, which blends surprisingly both suspense and reality, now that the story is based on a true incident that took place in the Argentine province of La Pampa. Arbos, by the way, took great production efforts to shoot the film in location where the action took place and that is another compliment to the efficiency of the film.

What looks at first like a very dated example of South American cinema, in fact turns out to be an intriguing film that packs a real punch. Although some of the acting unfortunately falls into the Latin American soap opera melodramatic category, and the production is obviously done on a shoestring, the script is pretty taught and well paced, and more than makes up for these shortcomings. The story of a illicit love affair is, of course, nothing new, but here it acquires another dimension which ought not to be revealed before seeing. Add a truly knockout ending and you've got a film that more than holds it own in a fairly crowded genre. Had the production been a bit more professional in feeling and a bit more money spent on it, it would have been quite outstanding instead of being just very good.