El Lobo

It's unlikely that retired Spanish building contractor Mikel Lejarza will ever retire to the Costas where he can put his feet up at a seaside villa.

Lejarza is famous - infamous to many - as The Wolf, a family man who was persuaded by Franco's secret police to worm his way into the Basque terrorist group Eta.

His infiltration became the most successful operation ever led by the Spanish forces, apparently leading to the betrayal of up to 25% of all Eta terrorists.

Disappearing in the late 70s, El Lobo's memory is still kept alive by "commando" members of the group who always carry a bullet bearing his name.

Director Miguel Courtois' efficient thriller picks up the story where Lejarza (Noriega) - a happily married father of a young son - is persuaded to put up two Eta killers for the night.

Appalled by their subsequent assassination of a local taxi driver, he is held by dictator Franco's goons before being offered the job of a mole.

His Basque building firm on the skids, he accepts the opportunity, a role made all the more attractive by the presence of sultry singer and separatist Amaya (Doutey).

Soon he has grown the obligatory revolutionary beard and is heading a cell supervised by Eta's big cheese Nelson (Patrick Cruel).

All the while, he is feeding information to the security services represented by Jose Coronado's splendidly slimy Ricardo.

However, things take an unlikely turn when the intially apolitical Lejarza begins to believe a peaceful solution could be achieved by political means.

Amaya discovers something more interesting in the trousers of more senior Eta leaders while Ricardo tries to distance himself from his problematic spy.

Taut and evenly-paced, this atmospheric conspiracy thriller doesn't deal in tricksy devices but sticks to the facts as it sees them.

A hit in Spain (which has proved resistant to Eta-themed movies), it's an informative film with a dominant central performance from Noriega.

Recommended.

Tim Evans