El Mar (Spanish) [The Sea]

Let's be clear. This is not a gay film. One of the characters happens to be gay but that is not the central plot of the film. This is a dark movie sinister in its setting and narrative telling. Set during the time of civil war in Spain during 40s, this is not an easy film to watch specially for Non-Spanish people who are not familiar with this history.

A group of friends play together. Ramalla, Tur, Francisca and 2 others. They witness the terror of the assassination of men, and the revenge that drives one of them to murder and suicide. These wide-eyed children become adults, carrying all of the psychic disease and trauma repressed in their minds. We then encounter the three who survive into adulthood where they are all confined to a tuberculosis sanitarium. Ramalla has survived as a male prostitute, protected by his 'john' Morell, and has kept his life style private. Tur has become a frail sexually repressed gay male who is deep into religion and thinks that praying and faith in God is the key to everything. Francisca has become a nun and serves the patients in the sanitarium. The three are re-joined by their environment in the sanitarium and slowly each reveals the scars of their childhood experiences with war. Tur longs for Ramala's love, Ramala longs to be free from his Morell, and Francisca must face her own internal needs covered by her white nun's habit. When Ramalla finds out that it was Tur who had reported to Morell that he stole his boxes, he can't take it anymore and comes to punish Tur. Tur tells him that he did it so that his mind os not deviated because of Ramalla. Ramalla says now he will punish him by getting physical with him so that he can suffer all his life.

The setting of the sanitarium provides a graphic plane where the thin thread between life and death, between lust and love, and between devotion and destruction is played out. There is graphic sex and violence and the viewer should be prepared to witness every form of brutality imaginable. These scenes make the movie intense and believable. Every character has a very difficult role to play and they all do well. In terms of entertainment, this film does not provide you that but it definitely shakes you up, specially the end when Tur kills Ramalla.

It is a dark film. I want to say I liked it but can I watch it again? Definitely not. (4.5/10)