Genre: Drama

Director: Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo

Certificate:  Noche de los girasoles, La (The Night of the Sunflowers) was rated 16 by the Irish Film Censor's Office (www.ifco.ie).

An intriguing and well made Spanish film that left me feeling frustrated yet strangely satisfied at the same time.  Written and directed by Jose Sánchez-Cabezudo, La Noche De Los Girasoles tells the story of a sexual assault and rape in a small Spanish town and is told from several different perspectives.  A cave is discovered by one of the town's inhabitants - enter a Geology professor Esteban (Carmelo Gómez), his partner, and a photographer who turn up there to see if it's a prehistoric find that the whole town is hoping for.

However, things go pear shaped when Esteban's partner is attacked by a passing opportunist whilst she waits in the mountains for them to finish their explorations in the cave.  Sadly it turns into a nightmare as she wrongly accuses one of the locals, and Esteban takes the law into his own hands with some dire consequences.

It's interwoven with the story of the perpetrator of the crime, a solitary farmer the only inhabitant left in an abandoned mountain village, and the local chief of police a lonely widower a year away from retirement who dotes on his daughter who is married to one of his officers, an idiotic individual who is already cheating on his wife just a few months into the marriage.

La Noche De Los Girasoles is a film about fate and destiny.   Comparisons can, I feel, be made to the Hollywood film Crash.  That said La Noche De Los Girasoles has some really well rounded, and passionate performances set against the breathtaking backdrop of a rural and isolated Spain, remnants of a bygone era that in themselves make huge statements.  And even though you know very little about most of the characters involved you care about them and in that sense it's very cleverly done.

I really enjoyed La Noche De Los Girasoles, it's a thoughtful and entertaining piece of work that draws you in and keeps you interested from the very start.  Haunting in parts, its simplicity in essence dictates its originality.

In a  word: Fascinating.

Reviewed by Mary Kate, Premier Movie Reviews 2007

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