A Spanish 1990's type of crime thriller/action but without the Tarantinoesque or Guy Ritchie ironic touches that
could feel a bit outdated when watching their films today. So, more serious but still a 1990's type of violent crime
movie and what makes this film stand out today are mainly the actors.
The Amazing Victoria Abril is nothing but fantastic in the role as Gloria Duque and she owns this film with her
deaply felt and very intense performance of a woman down on her luck. She's a total mess, a prostitute, a pick-pocket,
an alcoholic and even a robber. Some would say she's a despicable 33 year old woman as she has abandoned her
comatose and on lifesupport husband in Madrid and instead gives blowjobs to gangsters in Mexico City.

She's constantly mistreated and abused by men and her self-esteem is at sunken submarine levels and nothing points
to that she will ever be able to get a hold on her life and turn her path to destruction around. Will her struggle to live
a better life make her reach redemption and get us, the viewers, to like her, does bears crap in the ..... etc. etc. ?
Because Gloria Duque is not a very likeable woman, she's a mess, a gangster herself really, but she wins us over finally,
fighting to get a normal job (without having to give blowjobs to nasty creeps) and standing up to violent dangerous men.

For some unknown reason this great Spanish film is, it seems, is totally forgotten and unknown today. Most of the
text written here is from 2019 when I found a Spanish DVD copy without english subtitles of it when on vacation in
Spain. When writing this additional words in February 2026 i'm awaiting a Blu-Ray copy with english subs, finally.
The film swept away all the Spanish Goya awards some 30 years ago and Victoria Abril is hypnotic.
Another forgotten and unknown Spanish classic (outside of Spain) I found on a non subtitled DVD edition when
on the 2019 vacation was the 1964 Crime Mystery El Extraño Viaje with the great Jesús Franco in a rare acting role.

Maybe this film isn't that deep to be honest, it's not a masterpiece, but the Powerhouse performance from Victoria
Abril and also from Pilar Bardem as the mother-in-law makes it a Spanish classic. I've seen Abril in some Pedro
Almodovar film but not in something like this, she's great, i Love her.
I had never heard about this film before to be honest, and found it on a 2004 Spanish edition DVD without any
subtitles when vacationing in Spain.

I don't speak much spanish so i don't really know why Gloria abandoned her family and comatose ex-toreador
husband to try her luck in Mexico ?
Maybe she got tired and fled the domestic misery and we don't (or i didn't anyway) get to know the background
to her, when and why she became a prostitute. Was she a glory wife to a famous Toreador and who abandoned
him when he got hurt, fleeing the misery ? We (or I) don't know.

February 2026 note: Soon I will receive the subtitled Blu-Ray copy and then I will know ?
I got the Blu-Ray but I don't know, I guess she fled looking for better work opportunities
But Pilar Bardem's Mother in Law Julia is an Angel and still pours her love over Gloria

The film starts in Mexico City with Gloria on her knees giving blowjobs to some dirty men, 4 gangsters handling
some money laundering deal, 2 mexicans and 2 gringos. In an intense scene this business goes wrong and turns
into a bloodbath when they start to kill each other. Gloria survives luckily, she's found at the crime scene by the
police and she's hastily deported out of the country and back to Madrid, Spain.
But, with her she brings a notebook that one of the dying gangsters gave her, filled with information of the
Mexican crime gangs operations around the world, the smuggling of money and the means of how it's done,
including the money being sewn into the lining of furs.

Back in Madrid Gloria moves in with her mother-in-law and vegetable husband again, and she's welcomed
back by Doña Julia (Pilar Bardem in a great and also Goya filmprize awarded performance). But it's a struggle,
she's a mess and resorts to pick-pocketing, drinking and even armed robbery (using some of the info she found
in the notebook) and it seems unlikely that she will ever get up on her feet again.
But, she has got some Moxie in her, so ....

However, her struggle won't get easier when one of the surviving Mexican gangsters, Eduardo (Federico
Luppi) turns up at her doorstep in Madrid.
Doña Amelia, the wife of the killed gang boss is now the brutal new boss of the Mexican gang and she has
sent Eduardo and the younger hitman Oswaldo (Daniel Jimenez Cacho) to Madrid to retrieve the notebook
and to Kill the Puta. Will Gloria survive, will she win our hearts and find a job ?

Great film. Great performances from everyone, including Pilar Bardem and Federico Luppi as the middle-aged
and gentlemanlike gangster Eduardo and an Insane Performance from Victoria Abril as Gloria Duque, just
unforgettable and i'm still thinking about her many days after watching the film.
I initially watched this film in 2019 and will soon watch it in 2026 and the question is: Was it really that good
or was I just horny because of the beauty of Abril ? Maybe it was a combination of both.

Spanish El Pais (without any subtitles) The Old 2004 DVD edition

presented the film in widescreen 1.66:1 and with a Spanish audio 2.0 without english subtitles.
Extras a trailer, filmography and a presentation of and anecdotes about, the film by the director
Agustin Diaz Yanes in spanish without english subtitles