La noche dentro (The Night Inside): Nerve-Wracking Medical Thriller (Unbearable Horror of Guilt and Grief)

La noche dentro, Antonio Cuesta’s 24-minute thriller, is a feat of filmmaking. A sensorily taut narrative following the immediate aftermath of a boy’s death at the hands of a nurse, the film examines guilt with a withering transparency not likely to be forgotten anytime soon. 

Belén (an intricate Clare Durant) wakes up after being attacked, and the worst is yet to come. Procedural inquiries trickle into the voiceover that had held only concern and care moments before, the frame widens just as she comes to, and the focus shifts permanently from Belén’s wellbeing to her wrongdoing. A patient has died after she administered the wrong injection (insulin instead of paracetamol). The length of the film is spent in trying—not so much to ascertain the guilty party—but to find a corner of Belén’s mind in which to lay down the frightening weight of her guilt. 

The how of it, as the film astutely observes, is dwarfed by the fact that it happened at all. As Belén investigates the case in which she is the accused, the revolving camera in the cramped pharmacy room is nauseating. There are too many scrutinising eyes invading the privacy of her failure. 29-hour shifts mutate work into life, engulf personal worth, dignity, someone’s humanity into itself. The stain on her raison d’etre, by all rights an intensely private crisis, must also be the subject of an open, unforgiving investigation. It is already visible, stamped on her person by the boy’s father (Ignacio de la Puerta): a large bruise on her face, the souvenir of incoherent rage. She dives into the inquiry, because to sit still would allow the stain to consume her. Durant is impossible to look away from, using every glance, expression, and gesture to lay out the story.

The passage of each enormous second, acutely felt, marks this two-way collapse of the personal and the professional. The narrative feels interminable, not because it bores, but because it shreds the nerves. The question of who is responsible is easily dealt with, leaving Belén with nothing that can displace the grief and guilt of the accident. The climax strips the plot of any pretensions of mystery, cuts out all wiggle room. There is nothing left but to face the spectral elephant in the room. And plead for mercy. 

La noche dentro (The Night Inside) Short Film Teaser