MARSHLAND aka “La Isla Minima” (review)

Review by Joshua Gravel

A pair of mismatched detectives are assigned to find two missing teenage sisters in 1980 rural southern Spain.

While one detective is a young idealist and the other a holdover from the Franco regime, they have different talents that they bring to the investigation.

During their investigation the two girls’ bodies are discovered and once they switch to a murder investigation they soon learn that they may be dealing with a serial killer. As the case grows the investigation becomes harder as small town politics and corruption pry at the detectives already strained partnership and another potential victim is identified.

Marshland is a captivating and complex thriller, which guides the viewer through a very dark mystery.

The film’s style and story are comparable to that of True Detective while also displaying some of the older sensibilities of European genre films.

It often evokes the feeling of a rural-set giallo and other crime thrillers that came out of the Italian and Spanish co-productions of the seventies. The photography on display in  is fantastic and the many aerial shots of the expansive and sparse terrain are especially exceptional.

I am not familiar with the other film work of writer director Alberto Rodríguez but Marshland is a very assured film with a definite style and confidence in its storytelling that shows Rodríguez to be a director to keep an eye on in the future.

I would definitely recommend Marshland highly to anyone who enjoys a great mystery as this is one of the best thrillers I have seen in quite a while.