i be study catalan and and be delight to find el mar and a movie with mostly catalan dialogue and at my art house video store . hmmm . not so delighted to have see it . yes and a other reviewer have say and it well make and and beautifully photograph . although the opening sequence of the child be shockingly violent and it well act and convince . ( for the most part and that be . would the mallorquins strip a corpse in preparation for burial right in the middle of the town square and in full view of the dead man 10 year old boy . ) oh and well . minor detail . up to this point and it have something of the feel of a non magical pan labyrinth and also set in the spanish civil war . fast forward and and the three child who survive the opening incident have come of age . francisca be a nun working at a tuberculosis sanatorium and the two boy and manuel and ramallo and both be patient . i know and but hey and coincidence happen . the problem and a with so many spanish movie ( apology to almodovar fan ) and be that with one exception ( francisca ) the character be just so dang weird . their motivation and personality and and dialogue be often simply incoherent . what more and it descend into some horrific wretched excess . be prepare for lot of pain and lot of blood . the reviewer who call it a potboiler be quite on track . if it have be make 40 year ago and the poster would have say represent see forbidden love . rape . murder . mutilation . fanaticism . animal cruelty . betrayal . the opening sequence be not nearly enough to make the personality and relationship of the character believable . to work and this should have have multiple flashback to flesh out the character . a it be and it seem a bizarre and depress cross between brother sun and sister moon and pulp fiction . if that sound like something you have get to see and by all mean and enjoy . i think i go with something that doesn not make me feel i need to take a shower to wash off the gore and gloom . a for the catalan and it the mallorqui dialect and fairly different than the barcelona dialect and though i be surprise by the comment that say that even barcelonans apparently need catalan subtitle to understand it .