Cell 211: Prison Break on Steroids
If you liked Prison Break but wished every character was more like T-Bag or Haywire, then you’ll love Celda 111 (Cell 211), directed by Daniel Monzón. It was huge in its native Spain, and showed at the 2010 Vancouver International Film Festival.
Cell 211 is about a n00b prison guard named Juan who, due to bad timing and his new colleagues’ stupidity, ends up stuck in the middle of a prison riot led by Malamadre (think T-Bag meets Lincoln Burrows)
Juan has to pass himself as a hard-as-a-coffin-nail murderer if he ever wants to see his pregnant wife again…
Luis Tosar plays Malamadre, and looks like Colin Farrell, if Colin Farrell was bombarded by gamma rays. His performance in Cell 211 got him a Goya Award for Best Actor. Alberto Ammann won the Breakthrough Actor award for his work on the role of Juan.
These two guys carry the film, selling the story in all the tiny, human moments between the scenes of violence and overt conflict. You can see them think, and you can see them listen.
My Spanish isn’t great, but the subtitles seemed pretty accurate, if a bit soft on the swearing: “coño” doesn’t mean “damn”.