Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Fantastic!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

"Is justice really necessary if no one demands it?" - this is the moral question that one of the characters of the film is asking at some point, and this is the key question of the film that keeps being asked by everybody who watched this very well made and surprising film noir made by first time Spanish director Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo.The unconventional setting for a thriller story is a Spanish village, living a quite life where nothing happens until things start happening - a cave is being discovered and in hope it may hide some cave paintings specialists from the big city are brought in to explore it, and a serial rapist hunts its victims in the region. In the turmoil of the events a man is killed in a conflict triggered by confusion, and the local cops called to solve the case prove to be more than willing to cover the facts in order to avoid their own lives being disturbed and their smaller or bigger lies be discovered. All settles back eventually in its apparently normal state, as no one cares about a dead man with no family or sympathies left behind. Yet, the real villain of the story remains uncaught and the ending suggests that he - also a man of family and conventions - will probably hit again.The story is told with a very sure hand, and its structure - six episodes shifting the angle of telling the same facts from one character to another - builds gradually the tension and the interest of the viewers. the director certainly knows well the background of the Spanish villages where the story is set, and its characters are human and authentic. An excellent team of actors sustains the whole movie, Celso Bugalo is especially good as the old policeman who slowly understands the dimensions of evil he is faced with and reluctantly accepts the compromise or at least part of it in order to save the marriage of his daughter, and Manuel Moron as the real criminal, hiding its evil deeds under the masque of an apparently benign sales man and good family man.Spanish cinema has brought many inventive and successful films in various genres in the last decades. 'La noche de los girasoles' combines the classical psychological thriller story set in an unusual place with an older Spanish tradition of bringing up to screen the sins of the middle classes and the dangers of moral compromise. This is a remarkable debut.

A hugely entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable experience, The Night Of The Sunflowers is a Spanish thriller which hallmarks the great traditions of European cinema, where a focus on characters and their interactions with each other is the prime driving force. Set in a secluded and seemingly serene Spanish village "Sunflowers" weaves a sinister tale of mistaken identity, love, hate and murder, which can only be described as compelling viewing. What the director Jorge Sanchez-Cabezudo is immediately noted for is his character development within the context of a story. 'Sunflowers' shifts its pace half through way throughout the film from murder intrigue to an entangled web of deceit, but all of this is shown and felt via the superb usage of the varied acting talents at his disposal. Cabezudo knows precisely what he is trying to achieve and does so with an assurance of a director with plentiful more experience, suffice to say his debut is impressive. Shot in a partially non-linear fashion it manages to portray, through chapter-styled segments, how each particular protagonist, and/or antagonist comes to be involved in this situation, providing for a greater well rounded feel and sense of fulfilment come the films finale.What is striking, though, is the theme of fractured relationships which runs vividly and often poignantly throughout the course of the film. The archaeologist and his wife and the untold issues they have who are 'seemingly' brought closer together as the shocking ordeal continues, the police deputy and his wife as he struggles through what he perceives to be a turgid and boring existence, and how he is unable to escape the restrictions imposed by his superior, and father-in-law, in all regards. Not just these, but the dealings of the elderly gentlemen on the outskirts and their eternal war of attrition, and even the title itself carries connotations of opposites being juxtaposed, The "Night" of the "Sun"flowers. The key issue revolves back to a notion of people becoming so infused and becoming so embroiled with their own side-stories, that in turn the key moment of the film is entirely forgotten. What Cabezudo intelligently points out is how we all can become distracted from what is important, that something so explosive came out of initially something so small that it makes you query characters; 'if they had done that', 'if they had done this' it wouldn't have happened. The Night Of The Sunflowers is a frighteningly intelligent, bordering on complex piece of theatre which is cleverly constructed and undoubtedly absorbing upon viewing, that actually gives the audience credit as being somewhat able to put pieces together. It is a truly good Spanish thriller that tackles not only conspiracy and murder, but the people that put themselves into these positions, and allow them to only continue and fester, becoming embroiled in revenge over justice. Whether it be the Sunflowers, roses, tulips or poppies, this is one night worth staying up for.

Someone involved in the creative aspect - writing, directing - has clearly seen Touch Of Evil and 'borrowed' some of the aspects such as a Spanish-speaking small town, corrupt cop (though not the chief of police) and crossed it with Rashomon to come up with a very watchable quasi thriller which ultimately lacks tension. One of the previous commentors has already identified a major flaw in the shape of the killing carried out in silence (apart from gunshots) with a victim who doesn't bother to ask why he is being targeted and vigilantes who don't think to tell him or even ask if he is guilty. Invariably in a scene like this the avenger will relish saying something along the lines of 'this is what happens when you rape someone's wife, her husband comes looking for you'; but, that would, of course, spoiled things, left the husband with egg on his face and taken the film on a different course. If you can get over this hurdle there are things to be admired and even enjoyed though I for one have to take on trust the notion of 'abandoned' villages which the film implies litter the landscape in Spain.

This movie is outstanding. The non-linear plot reveals itself little by little taking you by surprise at every turn. It all begins with a rape which already happened a day or two ago. The body is found in the middle of a field of sunflowers. All of this, we get it second hand from TV newscasts while the main characters carry on with their ordinary lives somewhere else. We -the viewers- are lead to follow a caver about to explore a virgin cave near a remote village, his girlfriend, two old disgruntled neighbors on an abandoned village who can't stand each other, a salesman, the disloyal police officer, ... We get to see every character from various viewpoints and how somehow their lives are connected without them knowing yet...And then tragedy and human resolve -call it selfishness or greed- take over everybody's action.The pace of revelation and the acting work like clockworks. This could happen, this is (s)pain after all.Watch out for this guy -the director- for this is his first and for sure it won't be his last.