Director – Fernando Gonzalez Molina, Screenplay – Luiso Berdejo, Based on the Novel Legacy of the Bones (Leguado en los Huesos) by Dolores Redondo, Producers – Mercedes Gamero, Adrian Guerra, Mikel Lejarza & Peter Nadermann, Photography – Xavi Gimenez, Music – Fernando Velazquez, Visual Effects Supervisor – Alex Villagrasa, Special Effects Supervisors – David Campos & Raul Romanillos, Production Design – Anton Laguna. Production Company – Nostromo Pictures/Mantecadas Salazar AIE/Atresmedia Cine/Nadcon/ZDF/Arte/Orange/Atresmedia/Cosmopolitan TV.
Cast
Marta Etura (Inspector Amaia Salazar), Carlos Librado “Nene” (Jonan Etxaide), Leonardo Sbaraglia (Judge Javier Markina), Benn Northover (James), Itziar Aizpuru (Aunt Engrasi), Imanol Arias (Father Sarasola), Francesc Orella (Fermin Montes), Paco Tous (Dr San Martin), Susi Sanchez (Rosaria Salazar), Patricia Lopez Arnaiz (Rosaura Salazar), Alvaro Cervantes (Dr Berasategui), Eduardo Rosi (Coni), Guillem Peire (Dr Raul Gonzalez), Victoria Mozorova (Dr Takchenko), Javier Oran (Benat Zaldua), Asier Sota (Benat’s Father), Alicia Sanchez (Elena Ochoa)
Plot
The pregnant Inspector Amaia Salazar attends the trial of Jason Medina during which Medina goes to the bathroom and slits his wrists. On his body, Amaia finds a message left for her consisting of the word ‘Tarttalo’. Amaia returns to work several months later following the birth of her son Ibai. Her first case is the investigation of the desecration of a church where the bones of a child’s arm have been left at the altar. Next, she receives a message from a man jailed for murdering his wife who is asking to see her – only to arrive and find that he has killed himself, leaving another message saying ‘Tarttalo’. Amaia and her husband move into the house of her grandmother in the Baztan area. Further messages are discovered and then a cave of severed arms. The arm of the child in the church is found to be an exact match for Amaia’s own DNA. This leads Amaia to the discovery of a twin sister she never knew she had, who appears to have been killed at birth as part of the rites of the historic Cagoh people. Meanwhile, Amaia’s crazed mother escapes from the asylum with the intention of sacrificing Amaia’s child.
Spanish crime writer Dolores Redondo found success with her second book The Invisible Guardian (2013), a police procedural based around the area of Baztan, near where she grew up. Redondo followed the adventures of her detective Amaia Salazar with two subsequent works Legacy of the Bones (2016) and Offering to the Storm (2017).
The books were then filmed beginning with The Invisible Guardian (2017), followed by The Legacy of the Bones here and the subsequent Offering to the Storm (2020). I had mixed feelings about the film version of The Invisible Guardian. It seemed set up with disturbing things happening and had detective Marta Etura delving into a dark and twisted family background, only for not much to happen at all. The Legacy of the Bones reunites director Fernando Gonzalez Molina, screenwriter Luiso Berdejo and Marta Etura as Inspector Amaia Salazar, along with most of the supporting cast.
(l to r) Jonan Etxaide (Carlos Librado “Nene”), Inspector Amaia Salazar (Marta Etura) and Father Sarasola (Imanol Arias) investigate
The Legacy of the Bones heads into even further of a morass of dark and twisted elements – historic religious cults that practice child sacrifice; various wife murderers committing suicide while leaving messages for Amaia; the ritual desecration of a church and bones of severed limbs left there (which in a jolt twist prove to be a perfect match for Amaia’s DNA); more tarot predictions; a suspect with body parts kept in a freezer to eat; Amaia’s deranged mother, a cult devotee who escapes with the aid of one of the cult members and returns determined to sacrifice Amaia’s newborn child. The script passes through a series of wild twists – especially the revelation of the bones at the site of the church desecration being an exact match for Amaia’s DNA, or the seemingly unconnected murder suspects leaving identical messages for her.
All of this comes with a strong and absorbing detective story plot. It is one that requires you to pay careful attention to everything that happens as the script keeps a number of balls juggling in the air and to remember details as many of them come back and weave in together. It is an even more beautifully photographed and colour toned film than the first film – sweeping shots of the countryside all in grey-green, while the town and interiors come in ochre and golden brown.
