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Effective as both crunching thriller and provocative study of the penal system, Daniel Monzon’s prison movie swept the board at last year’s Goya Awards in Spain, winning Best Picture, Director and Actor. It starts with new guard Alberto Ammann getting an introductory tour of a high-security facility: before he’s even put on his uniform however, he’s caught up in a riot and forced to pose as a prisoner lest the angry inmates string him up in the meantime. Running the uprising is the ruthless, fiercely intelligent Luis Tosar, deserved victor at the Goyas for his portrait of a wily operator who rules by fear but has his own sense of honour. Quite where Ammann’s moral perspective now stands is another question however, since sustaining the ruse that he’s a fellow internee, while also exploiting his guard’s status to effect an escape, demands some tricky ethical footwork. And if he gets it wrong, he’s dead. It makes for uncommonly tense and intelligent viewing. (Notes by Trevor Johnston).Click here to enter our competition to win a DVD bundle and a Cell 211 poster! Closing date 12 noon Thursday July 14th.