Cross the Line
No matarás
Director – David Victori
Writers – Jordi Vallejo, David Victori, Clara
Viola
Stars – Mario Casas, Milena Smit, Elisabeth
Larena
At online Grimmfest Easter.
Mild-Mannered people-pleaser Dani (Mario Casas) has
devoted his recent life to caring for his father, but now it’s time to move on
and start anew. And he’s on the verge when he crosses paths with the kind of
domineering good time girl that you know is going to be trouble. The film makes
exceptional use of music as it goes from dad’s unremarkable dying room to neon
nightmare as Dani finds that straying from his caution only gets him deeper and
deeper into trouble and desperation.
Victori is obviously going for something more poignant
here with the title (online translator says the original Spanish translate as “You
will not Kill”?), but the fun is following how things, pretty realistically,
spiral out of control, forcing increasingly desperate and extreme reactions. Like
‘Victoria’, there’s a sense of playing out in real-time across the city,
the handheld camera staying close to the protagonist– in this case, across Barcelona.
It won’t win any friends with portraying the threat as a wild side female, in noir
style or a nineties “yuppie peril” scenario, but Smit’s performance is
compelling. However, it’s Casas’ portrayal of a man being altered for life by
one night, the toll taken showing increasingly on his face, that really grounds
the film. Perhaps the film ultimately overreaches for sadness rather than
closure, but it’s a vivid and entertaining thriller with lots of panache.
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