El marginal
2016
Original language: Spanish
- crime
- drama
The story
An ex-cop entered a prison as convicted under a false identity in order to infiltrate within a group of prisoners that has just kidnapped the teenage daughter of an important national judge.
What it’s like
Handheld, close-in camera work keeps you pressed against cramped cells, concrete corridors and grimy yellow-green fluorescent light, with a grey-brown palette that never lets the frame breathe. Sound does much of the work: clanging gates, shouted Spanish over echoing stairwells, and sparse, tense music that drops out for long stretches. A tight, escalating hostage standoff drives the premise, with a former officer living under a false identity among men who have nothing to lose. The mood is tense and bleak, a slow-burn dread that tips into sudden, shocking outbursts. Violence is frequent and brutal, with beatings, stabbings and some sexual menace, and cruelty is often shown plainly rather than softened. The arcs follow a man slowly losing his footing between two worlds, and a system that corrodes everyone in it. It suits late nights alone and viewers who want gritty, morally unsettled crime drama, not anything gentle or easy to put on in the background.
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