Cell 211 - The prison riot
| Movie | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| German title | Cell 211 - The prison riot | ||
| Original title | Celda 211 | ||
| Country of production | Spain | ||
| original language | Spanish | ||
| Publishing year | 2009 | ||
| length | 110 minutes | ||
| Rod | |||
| Director | Daniel Monzón | ||
| script | Daniel Monzón Jorge Guerricaechevarría |
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| music | Roque Baños | ||
| camera | Carles Gusi | ||
| cut | Cristina pastor | ||
| occupation | |||
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| chronology | |||
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Cell 211 - The Prison Rebellion (Original title: Celda 211 ) is a Spanish feature film by the director Daniel Monzón from 2009.
action
The film takes place in the old prison in the northern Spanish province of Zamora shortly before it closes. In the opening sequence you see the suicide of a prisoner who cuts his wrists with a self-made tool. In the course of the action, the viewer learns that it is the last resident of cell 211 who suffered from an untreated brain tumor due to poor medical supply .
In order to make a good impression in his new job as a prison guard, Juan Oliver visits his future place of work the day before starting work. While two guards are leading him through the prison, a piece of concrete falls from the ceiling, injuring his head. His colleagues take him to the empty cell 211. At the same moment a prisoner riot breaks out, the guards have to flee hastily and leave the unconscious Juan behind in the cell. Juan is found by the prisoner "Releches" and dragged to the leader of the uprising called "Malamadre".
He succeeds in credibly posing as a prison inmate convicted of murder. He is nicknamed "Calzones" (roughly "panties") because he had to show himself in underpants in front of the prisoners. With his suggestion to leave one of the surveillance cameras undamaged for negotiating contact with the prison administration, he wins the respect of the leader, who from then on uses him as an assistant. For example, Juan has to put the insurgents' demands, which are primarily aimed at improving prison conditions, on paper. Juan also tells Malamadre about his pregnant wife who is waiting for him outside.
The prisoners take three members of the Basque underground organization ETA, who are in a separate cell wing, hostage and use them as leverage to enforce their demands. This makes the uprising a political issue. The Spanish government is asking the prison authorities to protect the hostages' lives at all costs in order to avoid acts of revenge by the ETA. At the same time, those responsible try to suppress news about Juan's fate so that the prisoners do not learn his true identity from the media. At the same time, the storming of the prison is being prepared by GEO special forces .
The prison administration's chief negotiator, Ernesto Almansa, goes to the prisoners to receive the demands. Malamadre spontaneously demands that Juan speak to his wife on the phone. Almansa offers to take him outside. When Juan's liberation seems so close, a prisoner is slain on the gallery, visible to the surveillance camera, and a commotion breaks out. The prison authorities initially believe that one of the hostages was murdered. With his presence of mind, Juan ensures that the hostages are dragged in front of the camera in order to avert the otherwise inevitable storm on the building. Then he is celebrated together with Malamadre, which annoys him.
Juan's pregnant wife Elena learns about the uprising from the media and drives to the provincial prison, where numerous relatives have gathered to get information. When the news of the death of a prisoner leaked out, the situation in front of the prison gate escalated and riot police and guards beat the crowd together. José Utrilla, a head guard who is notoriously brutal among prisoners and colleagues, also takes part in the fight against the demonstrators, contrary to service regulations. He hits Elena hard with his baton. This is recorded by a television camera, which has disastrous consequences.
Juan learns about the riot from the television news and wants to know how his wife is doing. “Apache”, the leader of the dreaded Colombian gang in prison, who has contact with the outside world via smuggled cell phones, has meanwhile found out that Juan is not a real prisoner. Juan uses his knowledge of Apache's activity as an informant for the prison administration as leverage to ward off his blackmail attempts. He knows from the preliminary talk with Armando Nieto - one of the two colleagues who left him in cell 211 - of the existence of a slip of paper handwritten by Apache that proves his work as an informant and pretends to have the evidence.
Malamadre asked the authorities for a list of those injured in the demonstrations, but received only incomplete information. Angry, the prisoners want to kill the leader of the ETA members. Juan, who sees through the consequences, wants to prevent this and suggests cutting off the Basque's ear. He is forced by Malamadre's assistant "Tachuela" to carry out the deed himself. The authorities then announced that Elena was in the hospital, but did not give Juan the opportunity to speak to her. Apache meanwhile learns through a news video that Elena has been knocked down by Utrilla.
The prisoners demand that Utrilla go to prison as a negotiator. Although he has since been on leave, he agrees and is confronted with the video in the prison cellar. When Juan learns from a conversation with Nieto that Elena has succumbed to her injuries, he collapses inside. Utrilla tries to save herself from the prisoner mob by revealing that Juan is a prison guard. Juan kills Utrilla in a fit of despair and anger by cutting his throat with a blade. He then tried in vain to hang himself in cell 211 with his belt, which he had hidden there. Tachuela wonders if Utrilla's revelation is true; Malamadre defends Juan.
The government sends a representative to prison who promises extensive detention facilities. However, Juan demands that the pledges be broadcast publicly on television, otherwise the ETA prisoners would be murdered. He convinces Malamadre of the necessity of this hardship, since the promises are worth nothing else. The prison administration drops Juan after his excesses and passes his personnel file to Malamadre, who dismisses it as a forgery. Malamadre, Tachuela and Apache discuss the situation. When Juan is alone with Malamadre, Malamadre reveals to him that he knows that Juan is not a prisoner. He was asked to kill Juan, which he refused. If the government does not comply, they would have to kill the ETA hostages as planned. Juan should try to get out alive.
The government appears to be responding to the request. Previously, the prison administration won Apache as an ally by handing over the incriminating note. After the announced television broadcast begins, the storm of the special forces begins. At the same time, the previously initiated Colombians under Apache's leadership murder the Malamadres guards - including Releches - who guard the cell with the Basque hostages, and take over their protection. Juan and Malamadre try to get to the cell and carry out the murder of the hostages, but are stopped by Apache, who shoots Juan in the back with an arrow sling. Malamadre tries to save him, but is struck down by the Colombians himself. Tachuela is also killed.
After the storm, Juan is found dead and Malamadre is transported away, seriously injured. Apache's future remains uncertain because Malamadre survived contrary to his intentions. At the end of the film you can see the testimony of the mediator Ernesto Almansa before a committee of inquiry. He explains that there was no other alternative but to cooperate with Apache to resolve the situation, and regrets the tragic mishap of Juan Oliver's death. The film ends with Armando Nieto visiting cell 211, where he finds Juan's wedding ring, which he had hidden there.
background
The film is based on the novel of the same name by the Spanish journalist Francisco Pérez Gandul , published in 2004 .
It was shot almost exclusively in the Leonese provincial capital Zamora , the main location was the former provincial prison of Zamora, which has been closed since 1995. In the prison there is a separate section, which is one of the locations where the film was shot, where, during the Franco era, Roman Catholic clergy and religious from all over Spain, but especially from the Basque Country , were housed separately from ordinary prisoners and were often mistreated and tortured. In 1973 there was an actual uprising of so-called “red and separatist priests” in this department.
The political explosiveness of the hostage-taking of captured Basque ETA members by the prisoners in the film must be understood against the background of the domestic political situation in Spain. For decades, especially in the 1990s and 2000s, the transfer of ETA prisoners, who are being held in prisons across Spain, to prisons close to home in the Basque Country has been one of the core demands of the Basque separatist sympathetic community, and their prison conditions have been a central issue the political dealings with the terrorist organization.
Awards
- The film won eight Goyas in the categories of best film , best director , best male leading role , best female leading role , best young actor , best adapted screenplay , best editing and best sound . The film was nominated in another seven categories. This puts it in fourth place among the most awarded films at the Goya Awards.
- At the 2010 European Film Awards , two nominations followed in the categories of best actor (Luis Tosar) and best screenplay .
Reviews
The lexicon of international films rated the film positively:
“Exciting, excellently played prison thriller that routinely serves the standards of the genre, while socio-political topics are only marginally included. The documentary-like immediacy of the staging is charmingly combined with a suggestively drawn spatial poetics. "
Roger Ebert wrote about the film:
Cell 211 is a thriller about a man's attempt to save his life by thinking quickly. It never explains. It simply sets out the situation and shows us what he does and what the results are. You might be surprised by how much more exciting this is than conventional action.
“ Cell 211 is a film about a man who tries to save his life by thinking quickly. Nothing is explained. A situation is simply given and shown what the man is doing and what the consequences are. You might be surprised how much more exciting this is than conventional action. "
Web links
- Cell 211 - The prison uprising in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 'Celda 211' se rodó en la antigua cárcel de Zamora. In: RTVE , February 15, 2010, accessed on July 27, 2018.
- ↑ La antigua cárcel de Zamora lleva seis años con el cartel de "se vende". In: La Opinión de Zamora , April 29, 2012, accessed July 28, 2018.
- ↑ El infierno de los curas "rojo-separatistas": 50 años de la cárcel concordataria de Zamora. In: Público , July 21, 2018, accessed on July 28, 2018.
- ↑ ETA returns to terror. In: Der Spiegel , November 28, 1999, accessed on July 28, 2018.
- ↑ Reiner Wandler: ETA prisoners back to the Basque Country. In: taz , January 15, 2017, accessed on July 28, 2018.
- ^ Cell 211 - The Prison Uprising in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on April 14, 2012
- ^ Review by Roger Ebert