In a Madrid facing both a Papal visit and financial protests, someone is raping and murdering elderly women. An unlikely detective duo, the stuttering Luis Velarde (Antonio de la Torre) and the explosive Javier Alfaro (Roberto Alamo), battle against official indifference and personal despair to find the serial killer.
Director Rodrigo Sorogoyen has created an excellent, gripping, confronting film and an accompanying glass of Spanish red is highly recommended. It is somewhat brutally shot, with the naked bodies of the victims, their examinations and punishing violence treated without modesty. It is not, however, gratuitous. The rough, austere treatment adds to the story and to the two faces of the serial killer when he is finally revealed.
The acting is absorbing, with all the characters both convincing and flawed. Velarde’s stutter isolates him socially and he attempts to reach out with dark consequences. The film subtly hints at multiple parallels between the insightful detective and the killer. The quiet, brilliant Velarde is offset by his boisterous, muscled partner Alfaro. They make a good team, but are not without conflict.
'May God Save Us' is in part an odd-couple cop buddy film, but with better characters and story.
The scenestr Oscar goes to Javier Pereira who plays the twisted killer. His physical portrayal of barely constrained sadism, unleashed as he attacks his victims, is unsettling to say the least.
The film deals with religion (the Papal visit versus the background of the killer), friendship (between the two leading detectives) and romantic relationships with all their glorious promises and failures. Financial depression is a simmering undercurrent as the Spanish economic slump weighs on a demoralised police force, while Filipina maids floating in the background serve as a potent contrast between the true global 'haves' and 'have nots'.
Human frailty, the choices a damaged person makes and how that comes to define them are the main themes of this first class crime thriller.
Spanish Film Festival Tour Dates
18 April-7 May – Sydney19 April-7 May – Canberra
20 April-7 May – Melbourne
26 April-14 May – Adelaide
27 April-14 May – Brisbane
27 April-17 May – Perth
11 May-17 May – Hobart
