Without overcomplicating matters, director Sanchez-Cabezudo chops his plot into six overlapping parts, each shining the spotlight on a different character. In the first, we witness a travelling salesman's terrifying sex attack on Gabi. In part two, we learn that Gabi is the girlfriend of cave-explorer Estaban, whose desire for vengeance results in an appalling accident. Before long, virtually everyone's knee-deep in moral squalor, including the local law-enforcers: "Is justice really necessary if no one demands it?" asks bent young officer Tomas. The thriller, set in a remote Castilian village, is not a character study, but rather an impressive film noir, ambitiously drawing on all the character traits of a small community – its isolation from the world, long built-up rivalries and age-old resentments, betrayals, fears, infidelities, ambitions – all of which are violently brought out into the open by the arrival of outsiders setting off a spiralling and horrific series of events.
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