Cell 211

Daniel Monzón's Cell 211 (Celda 211) opened in 2009 and won eight Goya Awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Luis Tosar) and Best New Actor (Alberto Ammann), the most-decorated Spanish film of its year. Adapted by Jorge Guerricaechevarría and Monzón from Francisco Pérez Gandul's 2004 novel of the same name, the film consolidated Monzón as one of the most commercially confident Spanish directors of the 2000s.

Juan Oliver (Alberto Ammann, in his debut) arrives a day early to start his new job as a prison guard, hoping to make a good impression. While being shown around the high-security wing, he is knocked out in an accident, and wakes up alone inside cell 211 just as the prisoners launch a violent riot. To survive, he poses as a newly arrived inmate. He meets the riot's leader, the legendary Spanish prisoner Malamadre (Luis Tosar, in one of the most ferocious lead performances in 21st-century Spanish cinema), and finds himself rapidly trusted with the riot's strategic decisions.

The film operates as procedural-thriller and as study of how identity hardens under prolonged performance. Carles Gusi's photography of the prison interiors, the sustained handheld camera in the riot scenes, and Roque Baños's score combine into one of the most physically present Spanish thrillers of its decade. Tosar's central performance has been compared favourably to Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon.