Review: Mirage (Durante la tormenta)

Adriana Ugarte in Mirage (Durante la tormenta)

Mirage (Durante la tormenta) is a new Spanish language film on Netflix. It stars Adriana Ugarte in the key role. I remember her performance in The Time in Between very well, and was happy to watch another story with her in the lead.

Mirage (Durante la tormenta) is a movie with a glitch in the space-time continuum. The time anomaly occurs during days-long electrical storms that occur on the same days 25 years apart. One is in 1989 and one is 2014. Some trick of the storm opens a “gate” and Vera Roy (Ugarte) wakes up in a different timeline where no one knows her.

Vera is a young mother, a nurse, and married to David (Álvaro Morte). Vera and David move into a new house. They find an old TV and an old video camera with some films. They watch films of a young boy playing the guitar. Suddenly a news show from 1989 appears talking about the fall of the Berlin Wall. From people who lived nearby at the time, they learn that the boy, Nico (Julio Bohigas-Couto at age 13), sees a murdered neighbor, runs into the street, and is hit by a truck.

Julio Bohigas-Couto in Mirage (Durante la tormenta)
Hello? Can you see me

Vera returns to the TV late at night and, with the storm crackling, carries on a conversation with the boy through the television, telling him not to go outside. He hears and avoids the truck.

Because Nico does not get hit by the truck, the future changes. The butterfly effect. When Vera next wakes up it’s still 2014, but she’s a doctor, not a nurse. She has no daughter. She’s not married to David. In fact, David doesn’t know who she is.

Adriana Ugarte and in Mirage (Durante la tormenta)
Vera convinces Inspector Leira that she only has a few hours to return to her former timeline

After lots of running around hospitals, homes, and places where she thinks people should know her, Vera goes to the police. She tells her story to Inspector Leira (Chino Darín). He tries to help her figure out the truth about what’s happened to her and about the murder, which remained in both timelines.

The remainder of the film, following that first act, is a melodramatic unfolding of the mysteries. Vera must remember her new life, which she doesn’t recall at all. The old murder must be solved. The people from that time are all still around, except Nico is hard to find. Vera desperately wants to return to her own timeline and get her daughter back.

Adriana Ugarte in Mirage (Durante la tormenta)
Looking for the bones

The film is atmospheric with storm clouds and scenes in dark places. There are plenty of clocks and watches, mixed with shots of lightning flashes and stormy skies. The pieces fit loosely together, but the film flowed to its conclusion with bursts of exciting weather, music, and emotion.

A woman co-wrote Mirage (Durante la tormenta): Lara Sendim. Her co-writer was the director Oriol Paulo. Why isn’t the English title just “During the Storm?” Seems more appropriate than Mirage.

I can’t find a trailer with subtitles to share, but you can see a subtitled trailer on Netflix.

1 thought on “Review: Mirage (Durante la tormenta)”

  1. Pingback: Recommended Foreign Language Films and TV Series - Old Ain't Dead

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