The Snow Girl (La chica de nieve) is based on Javier Castillo’s novel of the same name. While this Spanish missing girl mystery miniseries follows tried and tested tropes of a popular genre, the element of surprise reveals itself every now and then. Though the writing could have been just a tad better and more realistic on the whole, it is the all-round acting display that comes up trumps. The range of emotions one would associate with the sudden disappearance of a six-year-old child from a crowded parade is palpable. Protagonist Miren’s (Milena Smit) axe to grind, making the case and her story all the more intriguing, is a high point of the show. The rage, fear and intensity seeping off her person and her unwavering quest to find the missing child possess the capacity to have you hooked.
Director – David Ulloa, Laura Alvea
Cast – Milena Smit, Jose Coronado, Aixa Villagrán, Loreto Mauleón, Raúl Prieto, Cecilia Freire, Tristán Ulloa
Streaming On – Netflix
The narrative opens with a standard premise. A six-year-old girl by the name of Amaya goes missing at a public religious celebration in Málaga. Her distraught parents make appeals for her safe return on television. While the senior police detective on the case and her partner go about their job of questioning suspects, the story catches the eye of a young student interning at a local newspaper. Her own traumatic experience of sexual assault a few years ago has her believe that she can be of use here. With the assistance of her mentor and professor, she commences an independent investigative search. Meanwhile, the parents’ neighbour (and friend) is brought in for questioning in relation to the rape of a minor from 1983. Despite many disturbing details revealing themselves during the course of the investigation (an exposed child pornography racket with a slew of dedicated members, most importantly), the Amaya case wanes with no workable leads. Until one day in 2016, six years after her disappearance, a VHS tape arrives on Miren’s desk, at the same newspaper she once interned at. The short recording has a now-grown Amaya playing in her room before the video goes to static.
Even though it follows the trajectory of standard missing person narratives, utilising intrigue, tension and past trauma to link a seemingly unsolvable kidnapping, The Snow Girl has this innate ability to stop your own suspicions in its tracks. The first suspect, David Luque (Tristán Ulloa) is too easy a sell to be behind Amaya’s abduction. He’s a rapist and child pornographer, no doubt, but it is clear from the very beginning that the man hasn’t taken the kid in question. Owing to her disturbing and painful past, Miren goes beyond the call of investigative reporting duties to unearth the truth. She is rightfully livid about the sad state of affairs; none of her perpetrators was brought to book and the case went cold, eventually. For a moment, the narrative creates doubt in your head about her involvement in things. It’s all a bit muddling because the list of suspects could be anybody, and the appearance of tapes showing Maya confounds the issue further. The reveal is rather anticlimactic, especially after the makers go down the route of tension-building and intrigue. Maybe that is the intention, after all. From suspense, it moves swiftly towards a complicated emotional drama.
There are some implausible moments to contend with through the story; Miren assaulting a would-be source and stealing a notebook from a VHS repair store, amongst them. As good as she is as a journalist, how long of a rope does she get from her editor (this, after repeated complaints from the public about her methods)? The writing does dip in such aforementioned instances before regaining balance, but it is the highly believable acting, beginning with lead Milena Smit, that must be commended. Her anger, her fear, her anxiety, her deep trauma and her obsessive drive to see justice meted out to misogynistic perpetrators at large, are our own. And that is courtesy of her fine ability to portray her complicated character so well. The dark memory of her assault from years ago keeps returning in brief flashes, sometimes paralysing her in shock. Miren’s unstinting need to see the abduction case of an innocent six-year-old to its rightful end is completely understood. Her complex motivations and actions need to be empathised with if anything.
Keeping the conclusion in mind, the door may well be open for an extension of The Snow Girl. Its minor flaws notwithstanding, the show deserves a thorough watch.
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