El año de la furia

Montevideo, 1972. The life of the writers of a television program in Uruguay is affected by the pressures of the military in the year that preceded the military coup of 1973. While the country slides irremediably towards the precipice of dictatorship, Diego (Alberto Ammann) and Leonardo (Joaquin Furriel), two scriptwriters of a well-known television program, fight to maintain their integrity in the face of pressure from their superiors to tone down their biting satires. Their freedom of expression is in danger, even a soldier who tortures people (Daniel Grao) and who maintains a relationship with a prostitute (Martina Gusmán) to forget about his atrocious acts. Almost all of them meet in a boarding house run by a Spanish woman (Maribel Verdú), mother of a young political fighter (Sara Sálamo). Policies and avoid offending the senior military who are taking control of the country. At the same time, on the side of the oppressors, Rojas, an army lieutenant who has been pressured to torture militants or sympathizers of the Tupamaros guerrilla, exorcises his demons with Susana, a prostitute with whom he finds a kind of emotional refuge from his guilty feeling. Little by little, the confluent lives of the scriptwriters and the soldier are deeply affected by the yoke of the dictatorship that is closing in on them, and both one and the others struggle to find an escape, a dignified exit that allows them to hold their gaze before the mirror.

This tense and nail-biting thriller is packed with as much taut action, enjoyable message as the storyline will allow , but let down at times . Engaging and raw film being compellingly shot , adding some political moments and its allegedly wave flag of impartiality cannot obscure the tension dripping from every frame of such reconstructed immediacy . A strong and hard drama with political touches, including emotion, violence, tortures and sex scenes. Although there are some confusing moments among the strongly character-driven plot, Russo who has acknowledged his admiration for Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously, or Robert Spottiwoode's Under Fire, two mythical titles with which he shares his tone and intentions has been able to depict the complex personality of each of them, without censoring their crudest or most dramatic moments. Thus portraying how these tense events brought out the best and worst in humanity, but without overlooking all the nuances in between. There's a swarm of peculiar roles, types and behaviors, which sets and narrates an Uruguay historical episode. The main story about Lieutenant Rojas monopolizes mostly attention, while the other subplots, languish and are narrated in ups and downs. It has its good moments starred by a superb Latin main and support actors, this multicultural cast contributes to giving credibility to these characters such as: Alberto Ammann, Joaquín Furriel, Daniel Grao, Martina Gusmán, Sara Sálamo, Paula Cancio, Miguel Ángel Solá, Stefanie Neukirch, Maribel Verdú and Daniel Freire.

With exteriors filmed in Montevideo , a city in which the monuments and streets of the period in which the action of this feature film takes place are preserved intact), and interiors filmed in Madrid, The Year of Fury exudes an air of thriller by portraying how fear gradually poisoned not only professional relationships, but also romantic ones and friendships.

The movie belongs to sub-genre that abounded in the 80s about reporters covering dangerous political conflicts , such as Indonesia in ¨The Year of Living Dangerously¨(1982) by Peter Weir with Mel Gibson , Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt ; Salvador in ¨Salvador¨ by Oliver Stone with James Woods and James Belushi, and Libano in ¨Deadline¨ by Nathaliel Gutman with Christopher Walken and Hywel Bennett.

The Year of Fury is a production by the Spanish companies Gona and Aliwood Mediterráneo Producciones, in co-production with Cimarrón (Uruguay). It had the support of the Ibermedia program, the ICAA and RTVE. The motion picture was professionally directed by Rafa Russo. Filmmaker Russo has once again tackled a political topic, but this time he relies on the characters who become involved into complex relations. He only has one previous feature film as a director, Amor en autodefensa , although he has directed several short films and written the scripts for telefilms. From the likes of Concepción Arenal (2012) and Clara Campoamor, the Forgotten Woman (2010). Rating: 5.5/10. Acceptable and passable but some boring and tiring.