Días contados is the work of Spanish director Imanol Uribe and was released in 1994. The film follows a dark love story that takes us into a poor barrio of Madrid. Antonio is an agent of the infamous terrorist organization of the Basque Country, the ETA. He installs himself in Madrid under the guise of being a photographer in order to plan one of their deadly attacks. Soon after, he meets the eighteen-year-old Charo, and the situation becomes all the more complicated when these two troubled characters fall in love and must face a multitude of obstacles, both internal and external.
To situate this movie in its historical context, it is important to know about the ETA and the peoples' perception of it in Spain. The ETA emerged as a violent approach to fulfilling a strong nationalist desire for independence among part of the population in Basque Country. Apart from perhaps a small portion of militant vascos, the ETA is typically looked upon in Spain with abhorrence and disapprobation. For this reason, depictions of the ETA in popular culture are often negative. That's part of what makes this movie unique; in this movie, the main character is an agent of the ETA, but he is portrayed in a very human light and is not demonized.
I thought that the acting was good in general in this film, but the performance of the other actors came off a little dull next to Javier Bardem's shining talent. The soundtrack, on the other hand, left much to be desired; the music for each scene seemed to be chosen rather sloppily because the tone of the music didn't always match well with the tone of the scene that it went with. The plot is obviously attention-grabbing, but I found that the attempt to be so attention-grabbing sacrificed all subtlety or nuance; it's all 'in your face'.
Another unique aspect of this movie is how it brings marginalized groups to the center of attention. It plunges us into the lives of drug addicts, and terrorists, which are normally included only tangentially in popular culture. Here, however, they are the core drivers of the plot. I enjoyed seeing a love story between two people from completely different worlds (one a terrorist commando and one a young drug addict in a poor neighborhood) and the complications that were presented by each of those worlds. Overall, I enjoyed the film greatly and would recommend it to anyone interested in a dark, action-packed romance.
To situate this movie in its historical context, it is important to know about the ETA and the peoples' perception of it in Spain. The ETA emerged as a violent approach to fulfilling a strong nationalist desire for independence among part of the population in Basque Country. Apart from perhaps a small portion of militant vascos, the ETA is typically looked upon in Spain with abhorrence and disapprobation. For this reason, depictions of the ETA in popular culture are often negative. That's part of what makes this movie unique; in this movie, the main character is an agent of the ETA, but he is portrayed in a very human light and is not demonized.
I thought that the acting was good in general in this film, but the performance of the other actors came off a little dull next to Javier Bardem's shining talent. The soundtrack, on the other hand, left much to be desired; the music for each scene seemed to be chosen rather sloppily because the tone of the music didn't always match well with the tone of the scene that it went with. The plot is obviously attention-grabbing, but I found that the attempt to be so attention-grabbing sacrificed all subtlety or nuance; it's all 'in your face'.
Another unique aspect of this movie is how it brings marginalized groups to the center of attention. It plunges us into the lives of drug addicts, and terrorists, which are normally included only tangentially in popular culture. Here, however, they are the core drivers of the plot. I enjoyed seeing a love story between two people from completely different worlds (one a terrorist commando and one a young drug addict in a poor neighborhood) and the complications that were presented by each of those worlds. Overall, I enjoyed the film greatly and would recommend it to anyone interested in a dark, action-packed romance.