La Noche de los Girasoles (Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo, 2006)

The lives of three geologists visiting a remote village are thrown into turmoil by a sequence of events precipitated by a travelling salesman attempting to rape the woman amongst them on a deserted road. They get into deeper trouble in misidentifying a local farmer as the attacker, and then a corrupt policeman enters the scene to muddy the waters further.
While the basic premise of The Night of the Sunflowers is nothing revelatory, there's a deconstructed element to the narrative structure which is used to good effect rather than just remaining a gimmick, and the moral ambivalence adopted to the dilemma of the protagonists is refreshing, particularly when a stock set-up leads us to believe that a formulaic reckoning is imminent. The plotting does get a little fuzzy towards the denouement, as if part of a reel were missing, but it's worth sticking with just for the simple virtue of being well-crafted and uncondescending.

6/10