A Ghost in the Battle (2025) review – arrives too late. . The Netflix film is more sober than ‘The Infiltrator’ but remains in no man’s land

Netflix There are a lot of movies released every year, but then there are only a few that get special treatment. In this case I am not talking about the fact that those responsible have had more money to make them or that the platform has carried out a more intense promotional campaign. What really creates a select group is the privilege that they can previously be seen in theaters on a limited basis.

‘A ghost in battle’ belongs to that group, since it arrived in Spanish cinemas on October 3 and on the 17th of that same month it became available on Netflix. I have no doubt that one of the objectives is to make noise for the next Goya, but there it will have the same problem to face in other aspects: its undeniable similarities with ‘The infiltrator’.

in no man’s land

I am convinced that there will be viewers who choose to ignore ‘A Ghost in Battle’ because they assume that they have already seen that film very recently. AND I can’t tell you that you’re going to find something radically different here.because in purely argumentative terms there are enough points in common to reach that conclusion.

However, the approach is very different, which leads to them being complementary works. In fact, the really ideal thing would have been to combine the strengths of both titles, because ‘The Infiltrator’ works better as entertainment, while ‘A Ghost in the Battle’ handles the drama in a more sober way. and without falling into Manichaeisms as easy as those we found in the film Arancha Echevarria.

The problem is that neither of them ends up being particularly round, but now it’s time to focus on what works and what doesn’t in the new feature film by Agustín Díaz Yaneswhich deals with both the script and the staging. The most obvious thing is that any type of surprise factor has been lost after ‘The Infiltrator’, but the problem beyond that is that the entire emotional journey it proposes feels a bit hackneyed.

That is where one might expect that Díaz Yanes would opt for a more visceral approach and that the violence would have such a powerful presence that this would heighten the intensity that his images seek to convey. I will not deny that there are specific scenes in which that sense of danger is achieved and raises interest above what is really happening, but There is not enough continuity for it to be something that keeps us trapped at all times.

In fact, Díaz Yanes’ main concern seems to be linking the mission of the character of Susana Abaitua to the tragic reality of the time – archive images are even used on several occasions on more than one occasion to reinforce it as much as possible – but without the story itself being told being based on anything concrete that happened. This leads to the narrative structure of the film being more subordinated to this point than to developing Amaia satisfactorily. And if something can never be forced, with such a delicate subject even less so.

On the other hand, we must be grateful that Díaz Yanes tries to maintain that sobriety at all levels, which helps draw more human characters. There it far surpasses ‘The Infiltrated’, where sometimes it almost fell into the caricature of evil to achieve the desired effect at any price.

It is true that there is not enough desire to go deeper here either – we have a good example of this with the character of Andrés Gertrudix– and there are very clear aspects in which he is content to present an idea and then do nothing with it. This clashes with its more sober and dramatic approach and leads the film to come too close to being a vehicle for Abaitua to shine.

The curious thing is that the film doesn’t really want to be that either, something that can be seen both in the restrained interpretation of an inspired Abaitua and in the way it approaches the story it tells us. The problem is that everything ends up staying a little halfwith nothing in particular that bothers, but also nothing that fascinates and serves as the backbone for everything else.

I personally think that the main flaw of ‘A Ghost in Battle’ is that to return to this topic right now you have to offer something really distinctive. With all its problems, ‘The Infiltrator’ succeeded, but here, without being a bad movie at all, I can’t say the same.

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