Une vie secrète

Movies that are quite claustrophobic are not easy to watch. I had no idea where this was going and while it is confined, it also is showing and going places. The acting is grand even in a closed setting. I can't even begin to imagine what a person goes through. And not just physically but also psychologically, which you can see and feel the effects towards the end.

Spanish language thrillers are quite something and if you like the genre, then you probably will have an idea what they are able to do. There is not much of a story here, this is about a setting and an evolution. It is about society and about human survival, even when it doesn't seem like living at all. Many great ideas, a lot of sexual encounters (violent and otherwise too, hard to watch - no pun intended and not trying to make light of many of the situations) and quite draining to watch to say the least ... but very well done

"Let fascism find not even a single passage to power or else that poisonous snake will infiltrate into every vital corner of the country and kill the future of the nation!" Mehmet Murat ildan

So, you feel imprisoned by the virus? Well, you have been, as have we all yet never with the choking space of Anne Frank, and never as torturous as The Endless Trench's Higinio (Antonio de la Torre), who spends 30 years cooped up in a false wall of his Spanish home fearing death by Franco's fascist loyalists.

The trio of directors Altor Arregi, Jon Garano, and Jose Mari Goenaga apparently did not trip over each other with their variegated lenses and positions to perfectly capture for insid out the imprisonment and sheltered point of view of the exiled Higinio. In over two hours, the film allows a sense of movement outside to infiltrate inside the hideaway.

Something is always happening in this 1936 through 1969 Spain, be it the imminence of being discovered to the birth of a baby, and the endless arguments with his wife, Rosa (Belen Cuesta), about how he should trust the new liberty of the allies and leave hiding. The energy of the film comes from the energy of revolt, be it against fascism or thoughts of safety in prison.

The Endless Trench masterfully glides between dreams of liberation and the warmth of enclosure. Additional allegory crops up with the apparent parallel to all lives that feel enclosed by a mate who prefers to stay home avoiding the dangers of being public and the challenges of intimacy that liberation demands. Introverted spouses should pay attention.

Although our pandemic lockdown fosters a claustrophobic atmosphere, nothing could compare with the lockdown between Rosa and her husband, a closed world of lost youth and abandoned hope. The allies may have liberated, but a man who stays in his prison after liberation is a man who has given up on his family and his nation.

The Endless Trench is a classy little film whose multiple levels of meaning and contemporary parallels should satisfy the most discerning moviegoer. Netflix

"If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States." Henry A. Wallace

Like all dictatorships, it comes with victims, beneficiaries, traitors and so on. This movie ignores most of that and instead it shows the suffering of a single family for over three decades, showing it well in a very intimate way. In times of today it is very hard to believe that this period actually wasn't so long ago.

This is a beautifully written, directed and acted little film. The script is very original, parabola like and very sweet. It's a timeless wonderful little gem.

The film deals with multiple issues including the psychological effects of isolation, the relationship consequences, trauma of rape, and childhood problems as a result of parental illness. I was initially put off by the length of the film, but it needed this length in order to fully develop the themes. This is one of the few long films that I've seen in which the length of the film was justified.