Film Review: The Tigers 2026 Spanish & Latin American Film Festival

★★★★☆

The Scoop Two people sit on a small boat near the water, with a large ship in the background and a blue sky above.

There was a cinematic trend in the eighties and nineties where it was near impossible to kill off the villain. In Cape Fear, Sleeping with the Enemy and Fatal Attraction, the enemy simply refused to die easily – or sometimes appeared to die twice. Echoes of the syndrome appear in The Tigers (Los Tigres), as director Alberto Rodríguez creates a hero with more lives than the domestic cockroach.

Certainly, they grow ‘em tough in the port of Huelva, Spain. This is a man’s world where ships come and go, and maritime workers curse, joke, and labour hard for little pay. Nefarious activities constantly bubble beneath the surface.

Schooled by their father as children, Antonio (Antonio de la Torre) and sister Estrella (Bárbara Lennie) are crack divers inspired by The Tigers of Mompracem, rebel soldiers from a Salgari novel. Their mantra is “Never give up.” The opening flashback shows the father toss his watch into the sea. Who will be the first to dive in and claim it? Turns out this is key to the family dynamics.

Brother and sister work for Fat Boy (Joaquín Núñez), the owner of a maintenance barge and the best line in the movie, “I may be fat, but I’m not an idiot.” Antonio earns his Tiger moniker as the supreme underwater troubleshooter. He fixes leaks in the hulls of oil tankers, saves lives and retrieves the drowned. Estrella assists onboard, no longer able to plunge to great depths due to a diving accident that has left her deaf.

When Antonio’s ex-wife forbids him to see their children and threatens to take him to court for unpaid maintenance, Antonio is ready to break bad. To make a quick buck, and with Estrella as reluctant accomplice, he dips his toes into the murky waters of drug trafficking.

Three parcels of cocaine have been spied in the hull of a tanker he regularly works on. But someone else wants in on the deal. You could say they’re up to their necks in it, but enough with the watery metaphors. In short, they’ve put themselves in mortal danger.

The Scoop The Tigers Spanish and Latin American Film Festival — Two story lines run parallel in The Tigers

Two story lines run parallel in the film. The thriller – will Antonio succeed in his stealing and dealing venture? And the subplot – what of the complicated relationship he has with his sister? When the subplot proves more intriguing than the main plot, you know this thriller needs help.

Antonio and Estrella live in a co-dependent household. Just as she cared for their dying father, Estrella sacrifices her career as a marine biologist to keep Antonio on the straight and narrow.

She takes on a kind of mother role, helping him into his diving gear, patching his wounds, holding onto the diving cable – literally called an umbilical cord – when he’s working underwater. She is the brains of the family. In fact, the cleverest character in the movie.

Ironically, Antonio, “the tiger,” proves a pussycat in her presence. Despite his spontaneous, gung-ho exterior, he appears weak and witless on the home front, constantly relying on Estrella to solve his problems. Like a child, he boasts about his successes, all the while taking his sister for granted. “I’m the one who’s deaf, but you’re the one who never listens,” she chides him late in the film.

Rodríguez hints at something more unusual in their relationship but never takes it further. The siblings are a little too close. Antonio is as jealous as a boyfriend when Estrella interacts with fellow crew member, Nico (the only character who appreciates her).

Antonio reads her diaries and goes through her things in the style of a stalker. Estrella, in turn, is touchy-feely and, in one breathtaking moment, joins her brother on his bed for a cuddle. Is this okay?

The Scoop Two people leaning on a railing at dusk: woman on the left looks away, man on the right rests his head on folded arms, blue evening sky behind them with a car and headlights in the background. — The underwater scenes are a highlight as were plunged into a quiet alien world

But back to the sea. The underwater scenes are a highlight as we’re plunged into a quiet, alien world. The only sounds come from the divers’ breath and the movement of the water. One of the most beautiful yet macabre images is of a dead diver being hoisted to the surface by a lift bag. The shot is taken from below so that the body-suited figure forms a stark silhouette as it rises towards the light.

Antonio’s efforts to steal the drugs from the ship’s hull are hold-your-breath moments. Rodríguez throws every element of tension at the scene – time is limited, the currents are strong, breathing is laboured, a parcel is dropped. Cleverly, the water remains realistically murky so that we’re not always sure what we’re seeing. This only adds to the suspense. What the hell’s going on?

Where the thriller comes unstuck is the ‘boy cries wolf’ pattern. In a bid to create tension, ironically, there are just too many false alarms. This relates specifically to the well-being of Antonio, who, seeming to have met his maker on at least four occasions, keeps bobbing up for more.

Most ludicrous is the scene where, half dead, he flops back into the boat only to discover that he has the bends. Back he must go into the water to surface more slowly this time.

Despite these slips, The Tigers is most compelling when it leaves the cocaine underwater and explores the more treacherous territory of a family that can’t let go.

The 2026 HSBC Spanish & Latin American Film Festival takes place nationally from 10 June to 12 July (dates vary) in Melbourne, Ballarat, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Byron Bay and Ballina.

Tickets are now on sale at the website. Downloadable program is here.

Website: https://spanishfilmfestival.com/

Socials: https://www.instagram.com/spanishfilmfest/

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