Il caso Galindez

This movie showed here in Los Angeles last night as part of a festival of New Spanish Cinema. Jesus de Galindez was a Basque nationalist who lived in the Dominican Republic after leaving Spain. And then after leaving the Dominican Republic for the United States he wrote a book exposing the Trujillo dicatorship. For this he was kidnapped and taken to the Dominican Republic where he was brutal tortured and killed.

The movie uncovers his life through the oddysey of a young woman from the United States who does research on his life, only to find doors blocked everywhere, and false open doors as well. Harvey Keitel plays the US government agent (it's unclear if CIA or FBI) whose assignment is to prevent the facts about Washington's role in the disappearance of Galindez from coming out. Keitel plays this role to a T.

At 126 minutes, it's somewhat overlong, and the performance by the actress playing protagonist is a bit goggle-eyed and wooden, but it's a fine movie. Interestingly, it's a bilingual movie, with parts of the dialogue in English, with Spanish subtitles, and in Spanish with English subtitles. It's also fascinating to listen to the different accents in Spanish by many of the characters.

The last film directed by Gerardo Herrero is based on the Manuel V. Montalban's novel `Galíndez' and written to the screen by Luis Marías, a well-known Spanish writer.

Galíndez was an independentist from the Bask Country that had to leave Spain since 1939, when Republicans lost the Civil War. He lived first in Santo Domingo and later went to New York as a University Professor. Just after publishing his Thesis about Trujillo as a book, he was kidnapped and disappeared. His body was never found.

In the movie, Muriel (Saffron Burrows) goes to Spain at the last 80's to work in her Thesis about `the Ethics of Resistance'. She finds this case so interesting as to decide that Galíndez (Eduard Fernandez) was the main subject of her Thesis, and starts to investigate about his disappearing. All along the film, we will know some interesting characters as the CIA's agent Robards (Harvey Keitel) or Don Angelito (Reynaldo Miravalles), and other less important to the plot as Muriel's boyfriend Ricardo (Guillermo Toledo) or the Thesis' director (John Furey).

The story is set in different sceneries (Madrid, Bask Country, New York and Dominican Republic) and there are a lot of flashbacks in the movie. We are seeing two stories in fact, the real of Galíndez and the fictitious of Muriel, but they are in some way the same: the search of the true, and the danger that occasionally this may represent.

Technically, the film has no faults. Perhaps a bit confuse in some moments -don't forget this is a thriller, and the mistery must involve the plot- but gripping from start to finish; the photography is excellent, and the main characters are played correctly. If you like thrillers and Spanish cinema, don't miss it!

Basque Nationalist Jesús de Galíndez Suárez (1915 - 1956) was a Spanish politician who fought in the Spanish Civil War among the Republicans against Nationalists. He was a writer and Columbia University international law professor of Basque nationalist ideology and represented the Basque government as a delegate , subsequently disappearing in New York City on March 12, 1956, . He was supposedly kidnapped and killed by henchmen of Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic . As he disappeared from his apartment in New York City , and was never heard from again. He had been working with the F. B. I , and was about to publish a book critical of Dominican strongman, Trujillo. In 1988, a graduate student, Muriel Colber (Saffron Burrows) , wants to make Galíndez the subject of her his doctoral thesis . She's in Spain doing research ; finding little results , she goes to Santo Domingo. At every turn, the C. I. A., in the person of Agent Robards (Harvey Keitel) attempts to thwart her ; and, at each turn, as she's deeming in leaving the project, someone offers new information, often contradictory , but then things go wrong. As Muriel investigates the relationships between dictator Trujillo and Galindez resulting in fateful consequences . As Rafael Trujillo was a real dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961 and the official President of the Republic from 1930 to 1938 and 1943 to 1952, he was the iron-handed ruler of this island paradise . Trujillo's character struggles with aging and the physical problems and takes down all kind of opposition . During his "thirty-one years of horrendous political crimes", modernized the country's infrastructure and military, but whose regime's attacks against its enemies overseas , particularly the attempted assassination of Rómulo Betancourt, president of Venezuela .

A thriller with suspense , intrigue , historical events , twists , turns and dealing with a woman who wants the truth behind the Galíndez mystery . The Galíndez case inspired the 1991 novel Galíndez by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, which led to this 2003 movie El Misterio Galíndez (The Galíndez File) . As the novel and the film being based on documents and in a wide range of testimonies of people who knew Galíndez , as well as prosecutor, investigators and former secret agents who took part in the trial to explain the Galíndez file . Today , even , the Galíndez File is still the most expensive investigation ever made for the F. B. I. Similar to Kennedy case and there're still thousands of documents kept as "Top secret" and not publicly known . The main question of the movie is whereabout of this enigmatic figure and the following one : will Muriel find it ? . As the spotlight of the movie accuses the dictator of the Dominican Republic at the time , Rafael Léonidas Trujillo , who supposedly ordered to kill Galíndez , but maybe the game of interests of the U. S. Government led the C. I. A and the F. B. I to take part on the murder of Galíndez. The Galíndez case inspired the 1961 novel Ciudad Trujillo by Andrzej Wydrzynski , equally the book ¨The Feast of the Goat¨, Mario Vargas Llosa talks at length about Galíndez and his disappearance, furthermore , Julia Alvarez references the disappearance of Galíndez in her novel In the Time of the Butterflies and in 2002 Ana Diez directed the documentary ¨Galíndez¨ about the affair.

The motion picture was well directed by Gerardo Herrero . This notorious producer/writer/director has made a lot of important fims. He was President of the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1994-1994) . Great producer of big hits , being especially known for The Secret of your ears (2009), Sin Retorno (2010) , Balada Triste de Trompeta (2010) , Crimenes De Oxford (2008) and El Hijo De La Novia (2001). He also directed some good films , such as ¨Corredor Nocturno¨ , ¨Principio Arquímedes¨ , ¨Crimen Galindez¨ , ¨Frontera Sur¨, ¨Territorio Comanche¨ , ¨Desvio a Paraíso¨ , ¨Al Acecho¨ and ¨Heroína¨ . Despite some failure and gaps , I must admit that I enjoyed this movie and recommend it to those who appeal investigation thrillers .

I know, it's a movie. But when it comes to portray real life (in any matter) it should be as faithful as possible. I'm sorry, but "El Misterio Galíndez" isn't as accurate as it seems. Nor is the Dominican Republic depicted as it really is. In fact, it shocked me to see that the filming location for Santo Domingo was actually Cuba. And incredibly enough, movies with Cuban themes (Havana, The lost City, Bitter Sugar, The Godfather part II) were actually filmed in Santo Domingo! So what happened here? Why did they shoot the movie in Cuba instead of the D.R.? The Spanish dialogs with the Cuban accent are horrible! Those are not Dominicans! On the historic level, Galíndez would have never been hanged. He might as well been shot, decapitated or died from the inhumane torture he'd been receiving. Then, thrown his body in the Caribbean sea. But Trujillo would have never ordered death by strangulation. His sick mind wouldn't have allowed it.

Acting isn't delivered as expected. Harvey Keitel looks like he's just expecting a paycheck. I prefer the leading actress in "Deep Blue Sea". The rest of the cast would have been excellent in some Cuban movie, and the same goes for the selected shooting location.

I suggest "La fiesta del chivo" (The feast of the goat), from bestselling author Mario Vargas Llosa, directed by his cousin Luis Llosa. It's a bit more realistic with Dominican history. The Trujillo character is very well portrayed, and the Galindez incident is treated very briefly in this movie.