With @WatchItWombat
Imagine pretending to be a different person for seven years.
Not only does our lead, Arantxa, have to pretend to be someone she doesn’t like, she has to live with people she hates. Undercover follows the true-life story of Arantxa, a cop who must infiltrate a terrorist organisation during the Basque conflict in the late 90s.
To bring you up to speed, the Basque conflict took place between 1959 and 2011 between Spain and the Basque National Liberation Movement, a group of Basque rebels seeking independence from Spain and France. What makes war such a fascinating topic is that it’s rarely black and white, and Undercover lives in the grey, blurring the lines between the good guys and the bad, which often makes it hard to tell who you should be rooting for, especially when you only see snippets from each side. Undercover tends not to favour one side over the other, as the deeper Arantxa goes undercover, the more we’re exposed to both sides of the story.
After six years of trying to blend into a society of extremists, Arantxa finally catches a break, slowly earning the trust of a man wanted for murder by the government. This sets the scene for plenty of nail-biting moments as one false move could blow six years of hard work, an opportunity to stop an act of terrorism and even make her their next target. This is especially painful for Arantxa, who has made an oath to uphold the law and protect the people the group is targeting.
I enjoyed this insightful look into a conflict that may not be too well known among people today, as it also provides a chance to sample what life might be like to live outside of the law. What the film lacks in big action set pieces, it makes up for in gritty and confronting moments.
Undercover or La infiltrada (Infiltrator) is part of the HSBC Spanish Film Festival, featuring a selection of Spanish and Latin American films to heat up your winter. Running from 11 June to 2 July in Brisbane.
For more information, go to Spanish Film Festival.
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