La Noche De Los Girasoles (The Night of the Sunflowers)
Spain's reputation as a leading film-producing nation continues to grow, particularly in the dark fantasy, horror/thriller genre. In recent years, directors such as Jaume Balagueró (Los sin nombre (1999), Darkness (2002) Fragile (2005)), Alejandro Amenabar (The Others (2001)) and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later (2007)) have established their artistic credentials – now, Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo joins the list, with his taut, suspenseful thriller exploring the evil under the surface of small-town Spanish life.

Estaban (Carmelo Gomez) and his wife Gabi (Judith Diakhate) are looking for a cave of historic interest, when a random attack takes places, things turn strange very quickly, as revenge, misidentification and Machiavellian manoeuvres from the local police all come into play....

Sorry to be so vague, but revealing much more of the narrative would be a mistake. The acting is near-enough perfect, particularly from Diakhate, with her unsettling, credible take on confused hysterics. Small-town Spain is also imbued with its own distinct character. Showing remarkable assurance for a first-time feature director, Sánchez-Cabezudo takes the audience on a circular tour (somewhat akin to Memento (2000)), returning again and again to events, each time from a slightly different perspective – an interesting, involving technique, but strangely one that has the effect at times of diminishing the tension, rather than enhancing it.
No matter - ultimately, this is a morally ambiguous and very competently made curio – perhaps its overt intellectualism slows the pace a little, in the final analysis, but the first-class performances, plus marvellous music from Krishna Levy, more than compensate.
123 mins. In Spanish.

Blindness
Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago and director Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener (2005) offer a disturbing, compelling take on a theme previously explored by British science fiction writer John Wyndham in The Day of the Triffids - just how bad would things really get if humanity, with but a few exceptions, was struck blind?

In a nameless city, a highly contagious disease ('white blindness') is laying waste to law and order – the affliction hits a doctor (Mark Ruffalo), who goes to pieces, while his wife (Julianne Moore) seems mysteriously immune but makes a split-second decision to fake blindness in order to stand by her husband. The blind are being herded into a government 'sanctuary' which, while at first seeming to be a safe place to rehabilitate, quickly becomes an overcrowded hell with no chance of escape, one in which the rules, Lord of the Flies-style, are rapidly breaking down...

Blindness Trailer

Meirelles' pace and tone lies somewhere between The Constant Gardner and the faster, overtly kinetic style of his City of God (2003), but nevertheless is charged with emotional and psychological impact that weighs heavily on Julianne Moore's shoulders – our eyes on the horror unfolding as civilization does likewise. Not an easy ride, by any means, but nevertheless thoughtful, adult and resonant.
120 mins.
James Drew

Expatica 2008