Semana Santa (2002 film)

Semana santa
Directed byPepe Danquart
Written byDavid Hewson
novel
Roy Mitchell
Screenplay
Produced byPaul Berrow
Philippe Guez
StarringAlida Valli
Mira Sorvino
Olivier Martinez
CinematographyCiro Cappellari
Edited byPeter R. Adam
Joëlle Hache
Music byAndrea Guerra
Distributed byMGM
Release date
  • 24 April 2002 (2002-04-24)
Running time
89 minutes
CountriesGermany
United Kingdom
France
Italy
Denmark
Spain
LanguageEnglish

Semana santa (also known as Angel of Death) is a 2002 European mystery thriller film directed by Pepe Danquart. It is notable for its international cast including Mira Sorvino and Alida Valli in her final film appearance.

Plot

During the Spanish Civil War the 14-year-old Doña Catalina (Yohana Cobo) is captured by war criminal Antonio Alvarez. She is forced to witness how her father is murdered with a traditional bullfighting weapon known as „rejón de muerte“. Following that her father's murderer rapes her. After this traumatic experience she can get hold of a knife and attempts to take revenge. But she is grabbed by one of Alvarez' accomplices who also tries to abuse her. She stabs him and escapes. A friendly couple saves her. Doña Catalina recovers but turns out being pregnant. The birth is difficult and the couple tells Doña her boy had died. Later they disappear and take the allegedly dead boy with them.

The war criminal who raped her remains unpunished. More than that, after the war he gets more and more powerful as a local politician. He keeps on befathering teenage girls, always getting away by making presents and paying child support. Yet a Christian brotherhood expels him.

Forty years later, during the Semana Santa, again people get killed in the same manner Alvarez once murdered Doña's father. Police detective Quemada and his new colleague Maria Delgado try to find a trace. They interview the leader of a Christian brotherhood and later on an expert for bullfighting. Finally it is revealed that the late Antonio Alvarez had advised his illegitimate sons to stick together and had hereby created a still existing network.

The sons believe they had to get back at their father's former enemies. Doña's lost son is on top of this conspiracy. As a high-ranked local policeman he is a superior of Quemada and Delgado. In order to oppress the truth he doesn't hesitate to kill his subordinates or even his half-brothers.

In the end Doña saves Maria Delgado's life by firing a gun at her lost son.

Cast

Reception

Critics occasionally found the film adaptation of David Hewson's novel Santa Semana not completely logical.[1]

References

  1. ^ "Though I seem to have only praise for "Angel Of Death" there is a downside. Like a lot of European slasher pictures the logic does not follow through". Retrieved 2012-05-17.