El caso Almería

Dramatic law thriller with suspense, plot twists , politics and infortunate events . At the beginning of the 1980s, Spanish democracy was far from consolidated and really harmed by assassinations committed by members of the terrorist organization Eta. The failed coup d'état of February 23, 1981 evidenced the discontent among some senior military commanders ("saber rattling") regarding the economic and political crisis that was devastating the country, together with the numerous attacks carried out by the Eta terrorist group against members of the Armed Forces, the National Police and the Civil Guard. In this sense, on May 7, 1981, the terrorist group Eta attacked Lieutenant General Joaquín de Valenzuela in Madrid, who at that time was the head of the Military House of King Juan Carlos I. The attack was carried out using the so-called "Algerian technique": the two terrorists followed the Army's Dodge Dart on a motorcycle in which the general was traveling. When the vehicle stopped at a traffic light, the motorcycle stood next to it and the passenger placed a bag on the roof of the car that exploded seconds later while both terrorists fled . As a result of the explosion, Lieutenant Colonel Guillermo Teva, the non-commissioned officer of the Royal Guard Antonio Nogueras García and the driver soldier Manuel Rodríguez Taboada, also a member of the Royal Guard, died. General Valenzuela suffered serious injuries, but he saved his life from the bombing . Meantime, Eta brutally killed about one thousand people and acting similarly to Sicilian Mafia. In this context, on May 8, 1981, three young residents (played by the newcomers Antonio Banderas, Juan Echanove, Iñaqui Miramon) of Santander (Cantabria) -Luis Cobo Mier (29 years old), born in Santander and an Aceriasa employee in Nueva Montaña; Juan Mañas Morales (24 years old), originally from Pechina (Almería) and assigned to the FEVE offices in the Cantabrian capital; and Luis Montero García (33 years old), a native of La Fuente de San Esteban (Salamanca) and an employee of Fyesa in Boo de Guarnizo moved to Andalusia to the hometown of Mañas, to attend the celebration of the first communion. They rented a vehicle, a green Ford Fiesta, in order to reach their destination. It is speculated that the owner of the rental company felt surprised by the hurry that the three travelers were in and communicated their suspicions to the Civil Guard in case they could be the terrorists who had committed the attack in Madrid days before and whose robot portraits appeared in the press and on television.

A passable court drama , adding the judicial procedure that the leading lawyer, well interpreted by Agustin González, has to carry out . Starring Agustin Gonzalez is nicely accompanied by a lot of familiar Spanish faces , such as : Manuel Alexandre , Antonio Banderas , Iñaki Miramón , Juan Echanove , Raúl Fraire , Margarita Calahorra, Diana Peñalver, Antonio Gamero, Ramón Langa , Carlos Iglesias , Juan Jesús Valverde, among others. Developing in ups and downs the unfortunate event in which a terrible confusion ended the lives of three innocent people. The value of this film resides in the reminder and the social denunciation that is made of that famous Almería Case . Despite being somewhat of a cinematic cliché, rarely has a feature been so aptly deserving of its description as a courtroom drama along with some elements from social habits , political critique and bloody terrorism. The official version of the Civil Guard indicated that the detainees were traveling to Madrid in their own vehicle, driven by a guard and watched over by another in the passenger seat and at kilometer 8,350 of the Gérgal highway, the three detainees attacked the driver of the vehicle, who jumped out of the car as did the other guard. The command of the entourage, Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Castillo Quero, who was driving behind in another car, stopped the caravan and ordered the Ford Fiesta to be fired on. Eventually , the sentence that put an end to the process was handed down in July 1982 . It declared it proven that three Civil Guards -nicely performed by Fernado Guillén , Pedro Díez del Corral , Luis Marín- took three detainees and later they were killed . So Lieutenant Colonel of the Civil Guard Carlos Castillo Quero was sentenced to twenty-four years in prison for three crimes of homicide, being released on conditional release on October 6, 1992.15 Lieutenant Manuel Gómez Torres and guard Manuel Fernández Llamas were sentenced for the same crimes to fifteen and twelve years in prison respectively.

The film was regularly directed by Pedro Costa and his film debut and whose maximum representation are the 12 very black episodes of the magnificent television series "La huella del crimen" written in collaboration with Manolo Marinero , along with "Redondela 1987" and "El crimen del cine Oriente 1997" are others two good black chronicles with Marinero . Undoubtedly, it is not his best work, nor the most careful, nor the best produced and, perhaps, it is not even acceptable in terms of its artistic quality, since it leaks everywhere, it looks rather hasty, and it smells of scarcity pecuniary .This recently deceased filmmaker Pedro Costa wrote, produced or directed the notorious TV series La Huella del Crimen, and films as Una Casa en las Afueras 1995 that allegedly results to be one episode that premiered in the cinemas. This famous series included important episodes as El Jarabo, Crimen De Calle Fuencarral, Crimen de las envenenados de Valencia , Crimen del Procurador, Crimen de Expreso de Andalucia, Crimen de capitan Sanchez . And Pedro Costa also directed El Caso Almeria, Redondela, Acosada, Crimen del Cine Oriente and Caso Wanninkhof series made in similar style. Rating 5.5/10.

The value of El Caso Almería does not lie in its story-telling qualities. Far from it. Strictly from a "cinematographic" perspective, the story is boringly told, the acting is lousy and so is the direction.

The TRUE value of this film however is WHAT it dares tell and make public: the murder of three young people by the Spanish Military because they were suspected of being ETA terrorists, and how one judge tried to investigate the case. The film is all the more daring when one thinks that the film director was himself threatened while directing it, and found it extremely difficult to release it (I personally saw it many many years later in Belgium!). This clearly shows that the country still has difficulties confronting its infamous past and that alone is argument enough to see and diffuse this film as widely as possible. So that it may never happen again.