Brilliant and touching

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is a stirring portrait of illegal work and human exploitation from Africa, particularly from Morroco and Sub-Saharian countries to Europa through ¨Pateras¨ or other ways . Interesting drama with emotion , a love story and racist elements ; including enjoyable performances , with roles very well developed . After living in Madrid for many years as a teacher , Lucia (Cuca Escribano) along with her daughter Clara return to her hometown after her father's death results in the inheritance of his tomato farm , being grown in Greenhouse or ¨Invernaderos¨ . There Lucia re-finds her childhood and befriends new people as Perla (Mariola Fuentes). While confronting the community's racism toward the new illegal workers , Lucia falls in love with the farm's accountant , Curro (Jose Coronado) . Curro is a loner who dreams to buy a house to put a bar ¨Chiringuito¨ called Poniente . The couple is forced to take on the bigotry of the town and as tensions come to head , such as her troublesome relationship with her brother-in-law (Antonio Dechent) and her foreman (Antonio De La Torre) . But the events go wrong until a final tragedy . This is an exciting picture plenty of passion , emotion , human relationships and many other things . The movie explores issues of racism and bigotry by examining the way in which a society reacts to the appearance of a foreign presence . It is an examination of sensitivity contemporary , social and political concerns . From start to finish the intense drama , thrills , emotion and surprises are continuous . Interesting and moving screenplay by actress/director Iciar Bollain and the same Cuca Escribano . The picture concerns about entrepreneurs that abuse on African people , taking place issues about human traffic , xenophobia and racism in which white roles predominate and African characters provide background . Enjoyable love story between Lucia/Cuca Escribano and Curro/Jose Coronado a man who shares her cause ; both of whom they will have to make some decisions that could cost them everything . It deals with deceived emigrants who arrive in Spain aboard ¨Pateras¨ and rotten ships or as stowaways ; they are without the proper papers and without a penny to their name . African immigrants sometimes find bad-paid , part-time work ; it is the kind of work that only illegal immigrants can get . This can be the story of many faceless and nameless immigrants in any country that live in sub-human conditions or ¨Pisos Patera¨ and face uphill challenges all the way through their illegal immigration . This brooding as well as moving flick can be defined as a thought-provoking drama , an exciting fresco with emotion , racism and a social fable . It contains enjoyable and interesting moments as the picture is more a drama than a denounce-film . Anyway, its is compensated with the great performances as the cast gets credible and nuanced acting that enrich the flick . This film grabs our attention , beginning with a really masterful performance by Jose Coronado and Cuca Escribano . Cuca gives a perfect interpretation as a nice teacher with dark secrets who attempts to help African people with unexpected consequences . Jose Coronado is simply awesome , he steals the show as strange man on his own dreams . Coronado has an important career plenty of successes such as Box 507 , The body , La Vida Mancha and especially ¨No peace for the wicked¨ . Other films concerning illegal immigration result to be the followings : ¨Bwana¨ (1996) by Imanol Uribe with Andres Pajares , Maria Barranco , ¨Cartas a Alou¨ (1990) by Montxo Armendariz with Mulie Jarju and Eulàlia Ramon and ¨Ilegal¨ (2003) by Ignacio Vilar with Chisco Amado , Lucia Jimenez and Chete Lera . Catching musical score filled with African , gypsy and Andalucian songs by Tao Gutiérrez and Ángel Luis Samos . The movie packs a colorful and brilliant cinematography by Carlos Gusi who ha photographed successes such as ¨Torrente, the dumb arm of the law¨, ¨Juan De Los Muertos¨ , ¨Take my eyes¨ and particularly ¨Cell 211¨ . And being filmed on location in Torrenueva , Carchuna , Motril, Granada , Las Salinas ,Cabo de Gata , Almería , Andalucía . The yarn is always dramatic as well as entertaining when is executed with style and the filmmaker certainly seems to have that . The motion picture was professionally directed by Chus Gutiérrez . She is one of the best Spanish directors who ha realized some good films such as ¨Alma Gitana¨, ¨Insomnio¨ ¨Calentito¨ and ¨Retorno a Hansal¨ also dealing with illegal immigration and a similar cast as Cuca Escribano , Antonio Dechent and Antonio De La Torre .