As Spain moves out from the shadows of fascism, a missing persons case in a small town brings two city detectives into a web of sex, lies, murder and political intrigue, where they must put aside their differences and overcome the evil that is ingrained in the rural community.

Marshland is a beautifully shot thriller, which bears tonal similarities to True Detective, Les Rivières Pourpres and Red Riding. The leanness of its 105 minutes left me wishing there was more time to be had with these well crafted characters and the world they inhabit. As with the aforementioned True Detective, this feels somewhat like a natural evolution from the Scandinavian crime dramas everybody was so enthralled by 7 or 8 years ago.

Where Marshland works best is when it’s subtly layering tension on top of intrigue, so when the frantic chases finally leap into action it all feels deserved. Perhaps it’s because we live in a time of 6hr televised dramas and 150 minute Scandi-thrillers but Marshland could’ve done with a little more room to breathe and perhaps draw a more satisfying conclusion for its two leads.

Marshland opens in the UK on 7^th August.

In 1980, Madrid homicide detectives Pedro Suarez and Juan Robles are sent to a ‘backwater’ town on the Guadalquivir Marshes in Spain’s ‘Deep South’ to investigate the disappearance of two teenage sisters during the town’s festivities. Pedro, openly critical of Spain’s past during the Francoist State, has a problem with authority figures, while Juan seems not to care, though he has a troubled past of his own.

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