Shot in spring 2024, She Walks in Darkness, the new movie by Agustín Díaz Yanes (who is returning to filmmaking after 2017’s Gold [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Agustín Díaz Yanes
scheda film]), is a political thriller starring Susana Abaitua (Desmontando a Lucía, The Bus of Life [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jonás Trueba
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intervista: Asier Altuna
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intervista: Koldo Almandoz
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intervista: Miguel Faus
scheda film], the series Land of Women). The film will be unveiled at the forthcoming San Sebastián Film Festival (see the news), in its official section (out of competition). The Basque gathering is also where the Madrilenian filmmaker won the Special Jury Prize with his feature debut, Nobody Will Speak of Us When We’re Dead (1995), which also earned its lead, Victoria Abril, the Silver Shell for Best Actress.

Based – like the award-winning feature Undercover [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (read more here) – on the lives of people involved in the struggle against terrorism, and firmly rooted in the historical, political and social context of the 1990s and 2000s, the movie tells the story of Amaia (played by Susana Abaitua), a young member of the Civil Guard who spends more than a decade working as an undercover agent within the criminal organisation ETA, with the aim of locating the hideouts that the group had set up in the South of France.

“Around five years ago, producer Belén Atienza suggested I write a story about ETA. Months later, I handed in the first draft of a script that told the story of an undercover agent, a character based on the different stories and experiences of various moles – both women and men – whom the Civil Guard managed to embed within ETA. Belén asked me to make the story into something more than a thriller, and it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that She Walks in Darkness is not just about the eventful lives of its protagonists; I also hope that the unlived lives (as author Javier Marías would have put it) will be felt – the lives of all its characters that could have been, but were not,” states the writer-director.

“It’s a privilege for us to be working once again with the great Díaz Yanes, who, in the best tradition of the European political thriller, has constructed a fascinating tale of suspense set in the context of a fundamental decade in the fight against ETA, in which the group’s violence had a strong impact on Spanish society,” remarked Belén Atienza.

“Agustín Díaz Yanes is not only one of the most important figures in Spanish cinema, but is also an exceptional witness to the recent history of our country. Right from our first conversations about She Walks in Darkness, I was floored by his profound knowledge of the events outlined in his script. I can’t wait for Spanish cinema to once again enjoy the fruits of one of its best directors, who resolutely and passionately faces up to the challenge of tackling such a delicate, complex and transcendent subject as the Basque armed conflict,” states Juan Antonio Bayona, serving as one of the producers.

She Walks in Darkness is a production by Belén Atienza, Sandra Hermida and JA Bayona for Netflix. The platform will screen it on 17 October after releasing it in Spanish theatres on 3 October.