El crimen de Cuenca

At the beginning of the XX century two men from the Spanish countryside were condemned for a crime they swore they hadn't committed. After endless sessions of torturing they confessed.

Though the most shocking thing about "El Crimen de Cuenca" (The crime of Cuenca) is the surprising ending, the sequences of the torture and of the interrogations are terribly hard. Pilar Miró perfectly portrayed how a scapegoat is made, how you can break anyone's will through the power of intimidation and pain, how to turn a man into something worst than a beast.

The cast gathered some of our best actors together: some from the theater (Dicenta, Mary Carrillo, Cervino), some from the cinema (Héctor Alterio -he's Argentinian, but has developed the most of his career in Spain-, Amparo Soler Leal, Fernando Rey)... this kind of cast would be just unthinkable nowadays.

PD: This movie was so controversial, and Miss Miró had to go through a military trial. The Guardia Civil (a police corps) was shown in a so bad light in "El crimen de Cuenca", dictator Franco had died a few years before the movie was released (in 1975), and the Guardia Civil was one of the most representative forces of his regime.

*My rate: 8/10