Intense, atmospheric drama about a Latin American in exile who returns to his homeland where he fought dictatorship thirty years earlier. He helps look for the body of a guerrilla who disappeared back then in the damp jungle. Or does he want to bury the past?
Martin, an ex-guerrilla who has spent 30 years in Spanish exile, returns at the request of his old comrades Raúl to his birthplace to help look for the body of their friend, Ezequiel, who disappeared during a battle with soldiers. In secret, they go digging in the swampy Latin American jungle. Staying as guests near the clandestine digging are Ezequiel's close relatives. Tensions soon build.
Four years ago, the versatile and productive Spanish director Isaki Lacuesta screened La leyenda del tiempo in the Tiger competition. Damned, which won a Fipresci Award in San Sebastian, is his first fiction film. The teacher (and former student) of the master's in documentary making at Pompeu Fabra University made an intense moral fable, beautifully acted by a choice selection of Argentine actors.