María Vázquez
1909. Miguel, a young teacher, is destined for a small mountain town on the border between Spain and Portugal: Lobosandaus, an inhospitable place, inhabited by distant people with remote traditions. It doesn't seem like the ideal place for someone like Miguel, who is determined to spread light and knowledge among his students. But reason cannot overpower desire, and as winter progresses, Miguel feels the darkness take over everything around him while his fascination with the enigmatic Dorinda grows. The unexpected death of an inhabitant will have a big impact on the city and will open the doors to a strange and ghostly presence.
Mario, an exemplary man, lives in a village on the Galician coast. In the old people’s home, where he works as a nurse, everyone appreciates him. When the best known narco in the area, Antonio Padín, recently released from prison, enters the residence, Mario tries to make Antonio feel at home. Now, Padín's two sons, Kike and Toño, are in charge of the family business. The failure of an operation will put Kike in jail and cause them to owe a large debt to a Colombian supplier. Toño will turn to the nurse to try to convince his father to assume the debt. But Mario has his own plans.
Carme lives in a mountain village in Galicia with her sick mother and her father Ramón, with whom she hardly speaks. Working in a bakery, she feels the urge to escape from this oppressive atmosphere, but circumstances always seem to stop her. But during the “Rapa das Bestas” weekend – a celebration of the age-old struggle between man and horse – Carme’s older brother, Luís, comes home with his wife María...
Ever since her mum died when she was fifteen, Maria has taken care of her father and her siblings. Responsible and in control, she's always been a rock for the family and feels proud of her efforts. That's why her father's sudden love for his nurse and the announcement of their marriage brings Maria's world crashing down around her. At the age of 35 and unable to find a steady partner, she'll have to take the plunge and dare to change her own fate.
One morning, the body of a sailor is found lying on the beach, washed in by the tide.. With no witnesses or any sign of the dead man’s boat, Inspector Leo Caldas begins immersing himself in the town’s seafaring atmosphere as he endeavours to shed light on the crime. He finds himself among men and women who prefer not to reveal their suspicions to him. But a sudden discovery sets him off in an unexpected direction.
Private detectives Inés, Eva, and Carmen often invade others' privacy but are clueless about confronting their own secrets. While on the job, these three surveillance specialists will have to cross the thin line dividing public and private matters, bringing their own issues to light in order to solve more than just their professional cases.
The first half of this movie may be tasteless: there is this bunch of girls and boys living in the working class suburbs of Madrid around the boxing club, some action, some sex, not going nowhere, but soon the characters begin to sharpen, the story takes shape around persons and groups. One can expect things to get bad in any moment but psychology takes over easy violence on the screen and the second half is a much more captivating linear part, where the characters have more convincing roles. Nathalia Verbeke is amazing, once again!, in a new and physically demanding role. Can't keep from comparing her with Hilary Swank performance in Million Dollar Baby.
The Night of the brother ("La Noche del Hermano") is a chiaroscuro tale in which the characters' not always explicit feelings cover the gamut from darkness to light through the thin line between love and fear. Because the events of life are often less astonishing than the way they are shown to us.
Winter, 1944. Lucía at 21 returns to her small village in the mountains. She again meets Manuel, a young iron-smith who helps "those in the mountain", the "maquis", the anti-Franco resistance. Lucía is attracted to Manual, because of his smile and the bravery of those men who continue fighting for their ideas, even at the cost of their own lives. When Manuel is pursued (by Franco's Civil Guard) he flees to the mountain and Lucía discovers the reality of political repression, the silence, the horror and fear.
