Lands of Murders

User Review for Freies Land, D 2019

9/10 German Remake 5/10 Spanish Original

I found the remake definitely better than the spanish version. The stories are basically the same, BUT: because it is set 1992 in Meck-Pom (former GDR, which was an autocracy), as a German (I was born in West Germany) you can understand the land and the people, the atmosphere, situations and relationships much better than shown in the original movie. So I found 'Freies Land' much more authentic than 'La isla minima'.

Because I am German and not Spanish I couldn't (strongly) relate to the original spanish story in the aftermath of the civil war, respectively post-fascist Franco era.

Very nice movie, seemed authentic enough to me. I really liked how the movie looked (lights, colouring etc.). The atmosphere of the movie reminded me a bit of The Crimson Rivers as well as some Swedish crime movies.

I haven't seen the film which This was a remake of but am definitely interested in seeing that as well. I think the story fit in well to the time after the reunification.

The acting was good enough. In the end quite a basic crime movie but loved the elements that were bought from the DDR time.

I definitely recommend this movie to all fans of European crime movies. Although it is modern, it still has the vibe of the 90s.