Cell 211 – review

Pros and cons ... Luis Tosar. Photograph: Jose HaroCell 211 (Celda 211)Production year: 2009Country: Rest of the worldCert (UK): 18Runtime: 112 minsDirectors: Daniel MonzonCast: Alberto Ammann, Antonio Resines, Luis Tosar, Manuel Moron, Marta EturaMore on this film

Here is a big, brash, violent, and even slightly outrageous high-concept prison movie from Spain, well plotted with some neat narrative switchbacks, and pitched with gusto at a commercial market – rather than the loftier stratum at which Jacques Audiard was aiming with his A Prophet. It looks ripe for an English-language remake, and has already been sold to Hollywood. Alberto Ammann is Juan, a fresh-faced young guy who turns up for his new job as a prison guard and finds himself right in the middle of a terrifying situation: a riot kicks off just as he is undergoing his informal induction process. Soon Juan finds himself having to take desperate measures to survive and confronting the prison's toughest inmate, the brutish Malamadre, played by Luis Tosar. This man controls life on the inside, but finds that the riot he notionally controls is coming to call his own authority into question. There is something melodramatic and soapy about Cell 211 occasionally, but it really is exciting. Tosar is an actor who deserves a breakthrough to a larger audience – who knows if he might not follow Javier Bardem into international stardom – and for sheer storytelling pizazz, Cell 211 delivers.

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