nobody know anybody be a conspiracy theory thriller about a satanist or nut bomber target the religious festivity of seville during holy week . he also happen to be the best friend of the film hero . the plot be set up by the bomber a a computer game and with himself and the hero a player and and seville a the virtual environment . the very real alley and street of the city begin to take on the labyrinthine quality of those old pacman type game . look at this way and the scene where the hero and his female sidekick be chase by black hood penitent with rayguns may not seem as silly a it play . from the start and we be aware that the narrative be be construct a a game the hero job be to create crossword puzzle for a popular newspaper while at one point and the crossword grid on his screen become the chessboard on which he be later play against his girlfriend father . clue be liberally scattered and a the camera mystifyingly close in on image that be only later show to have be significant ( e. g. the advert in the bar ) . the detective or paper chase element be make part of a game in progress and rather than an investigation after the fact . the film borrow heavily on se7en pattern narrative and and anyone with a catholic education will presumably get the significance of certain event happen on certain day in the run up to easter . in this reading and the game be on the level of narrative and with the hero fight against an enemy ( in this case and the computer ) to win and save the day . but there be a second game and the film itself and which subvert the first . there be another set of of clue which point not to the killer intention and but the filmmaker and his hero . in the first ten minute there be reference to chess and a writer call navokov and a cult leader call sarin . if we remember that the chess love nabokov 1930s pseudonym be sirin and we see another game afoot and one where we suspect not the villain and but the hero himself . in a nabokov novel like pale fire and an author figure create a text which be design to hide his own motif and provoke a game between writer and reader to uncover the real text . throughout the film be scene which be visually distort ( e. g. the image contracting ) and or which be ambiguously define dream and hallucination that make u suspect the hero point of view . the opening reference to game be all link to him . in the early sequence and much be make of the character sexual and creative impotence and so the film could be his attempt to master his life and to be a winner and in a way he can not for real . no sooner have he win the game than his writer block vanishes while the word he type be the title of the film and suggesting he be the overall author . far and that title in spanish reflect on itself negatively and a very nabokovian involution that suggest a hero and like kinbote and trap in his own solecism . this jumble of post modern literature ( borges and eco and pynchon et al be allude to also ) and fincher and x file and run lola run and chris marker ( the idea of the city and it history a a map and a text while and a a cultural history haunt the present ) and bunuellian anti clericism and and alex de la iglesia hock film result in a film that be just that and a jumble and each clever clever allusive element cancel out the last and dissipating interest . the lack of clarity about the game rule render it incomprehensible and and eventually wear . ironically and in a work of such overdetermined artifice and the film main interest lie in it documentary quality and a a record of a narrative take place in a real city with it own event take place independently . such an ambiguous blurring of fact and fiction can create a masterpiece like sans soleil or london and but and ultimately and you need to have a light touch to match your cleverness .