The Hidden Face - DVD

Film: Spanish conductor Adrian (Quim Gutierrez) lives for some time with his girlfriend Belen (Clara Lago) in Bogota, Colombia. While Adrian thrives in his work with the orchestra and thoroughly enjoys being adored by attractive female musicians, Belen feels increasingly lonely and unloved. One day, it seems enough is enough for her. Via cell phone video she leaves Adrian, who is completely surprised by the breakup and falls into a deep hole. His grief, however, quickly turns into anger, which he tries to calm down by having an affair with the young waitress Fabiana (Martina Garcia). What was supposed to be just a one-night stand quickly develops into a new relationship. After only a few weeks, Fabiana moves in with the respected conductor. For the simple girl, it seems like a dream come true. But this dream could very soon turn into an absolute nightmare for her...

The Hidden Face is a suspenseful mystery thriller, which in its first half initially gives the impression of being a rather simple-minded, visually appealing relationship drama. But after some eerie incidents, which already give us a hint that the story has another, darker level, the whole thing changes from a quiet drama to an intense thriller, which can captivate almost until the finale. Only a few small dramaturgical lengths stand in the way of a completely positive overall picture.

So some scenes, which show Fabiana alone in Adrian's house, seem a bit repetitive in the long run. You almost get the impression that she's constantly in the shower or lying in the bathtub. Although these scenes get an important meaning in the second half of the movie, the feeling remains that director Andres Biaz could have paced things a bit better here. Because the actual story, which he tells here cleverly constructed in two parts, is not substantial enough to fill 90 minutes. And this is of course more noticeable in longer quiet scenes, than in the moments in which Biaz tightens the tension screw by very dramatic or claustrophobic scenes.

But the small lengths can be forgiven in the end but quite well. Because the good actors and a visually very appealing, atmospherically dense production pull the viewer so much into the action that the dramaturgical weaknesses are hardly noticeable. Andres Biaz has succeeded with his feature film debut a noble psycho-thriller, which offers with its mixture of romance, drama, eroticism and mystery exciting entertainment for all friends of European thrillers. It doesn't always need a lot of blood or action to create effective suspense. Sometimes the real power lies in the quietness. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The picture and sound quality of the DVD is on a good to very good level. While the sound remains rather restrained in accordance with the atmosphere of the film and has only a few real surround moments to offer, the very clean picture convinces with a good overall sharpness and a coherent color scheme. Good contrast and neatly matched black levels ensure that the image has little drop-off in quality, even in the numerous darker sequences. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has unfortunately only the trailer to offer to the film.

F Conclusion: The hidden face is a suspenseful thriller that provides with its original story and its very quiet production over long stretches for really good suspense. Despite some minor dramaturgical lengths, a very effective work that can be warmly recommended to lovers of quiet psychological drama thrillers. Only the barely available bonus material clouds the positive overall picture a little. Recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp