AllMovie

Carlos Martin Ferrera's grueling, discomfiting psychological thriller Zulo (Basque for "hole") opens on Miguel (Jaume Garcia Arija), a man of indeterminate background, regaining consciousness as a prisoner in an underground, tile-lined hole, with only a bucket and a blanket to accompany him. Thrown into this pit by two hooded kidnappers of indeterminate ethnicity and political affiliation, he is almost completely abandoned, save rare moments when his laconic captors toss in a cigarette, a scrap of cheese, or a candle. With no means of escape or hope of escaping, and no added explanation about Miguel's background, the film's only source of drama involves watching the prisoner ride the arc from sanity and lucidity into delirium and permanent madness.