Santoalla (2016)

Santoalla: Directed by Andrew Becker, Daniel Mehrer. With Carlos Rodríguez, Jovita Rodríguez, Julio Rodríguez, Manolo Rodríguez. A Dutch couple, Martin and Margo Verfondern, move to a remote Spanish village of Santoalla to start a new life. There is conflict with the Spanish residents, resulting in the disappearance of Martin.

“It s a decent documentary. The use of he music track is extremally heavy-handed and jarring but otherwise not bad.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI do feel the filmmakers, being urban New Yorkers, came down to much on one side of the conflict. They clearly sympathize more with the Dutch couple who while not rich have more resources and are able to bully their way in several interactions.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI suggest considering this crime as an allegory for colonialism. The rural family is essentially indigenous peoples at sustenance level and they are faced with newcomers who begin apparently wanting to not change the land, but eventually begin plans to completely change it with a plan to bringing in tourism and additional settlers. As well as questionable exploitation of resources (timber cutting the local forest in an unsustainable way).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe mystery presented by the filmmaker is not so much a mystery — it is fairly clear what happened in the u0026quot;disappearance.u0026quot; I think the other aspects are much more compelling and unfortunately inadequately explored.”