Your Son

Miguel Angel Vivas, the Spanish talent behind the hit Kidnapped and the solid horror film Extinction,now comes with a revenge drama laced thriller and it's his best film to date. The story focuses on a doctor whose son is brought to hospital brutally beaten and nearly dead. Since the police don’t care, he decides to find the culprits himself. The whole film is driven by Jose Coronado's performance and although it is slower paced, it draws the viewer's attention from the start and serves up a very authentic and stiffing atmosphere with an unexpectedly sharp finale (yes there is a rape), and a shocking twist at the end. The highlight are also the scene in the toilet and the beating of the son, which will make you physically uncomfortable. The Spaniards are in good form again. 80%. (03/22/2019)

A solid Spanish family drama that has a clear idea. In the plot, the plot is in turns interesting and slightly boring (especially due to a slow start), but in the end it manages to shock the audience, which elevates the resulting impression to more than average. (05/13/2020)

Don't be fooled by the description, which might tempt you to some action revenge flick, because this is pure Spanish slow-burn with many unconventional shots, slow pace, but all the more striking atmosphere. Viewers ruined by Hollywood will drawl, but fans of slow-burns, festival films and unconventional filmmaking will jump with joy. Or rather, they’ll sigh with depression. The running time may seem drawn out, with many "dull" shots that capture the main character up close for several minutes and that don't actually say anything, but savvy viewers will understand that everything here has a purpose and the whole thing is a subtle way to bring you as close as possible to the main character, the way he thinks, and the whole transition from calm surgeon to desperate father who would do anything for his son, whatever the cost. The atmosphere is suffocating from the first few minutes, the actor playing the main character is a familiar face from Spanish cinema and once again he nails it here with feeling, I just ate up his entire development, and then at the end comes the final denouement and the twist we've been waiting for the whole film and the reason why everyone has been acting so mysterious and strange is finally revealed. The Spaniards have done it again and I enjoyed this film to the fullest. You just has to surrender to it and want to feel those emotions with the main character, otherwise it's "just" an ordinary movie that someone with no mood will skip boredly through, cursing that nothing happens for half of it. Heavy, suffocating, but all the better filmmaking for it. (11/03/2023)