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Retribution (2015 film)

2015 Spanish film

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ21218461 ↗
Source-derived summary

Retribution (Spanish: El desconocido, transl. 'The Stranger') is a 2015 Spanish-French action thriller film directed by Dani de la Torre, and starring Luis Tosar, Javier Gutiérrez, Elvira Mínguez and Goya Toledo. It was screened in the Venice Days section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.

Plot

Carlos is a bank executive who lives with his wife Marta and children Marcos and Sara. Carlos gets ready to drop Marcos and Sara off to school while Marcos brings a soccer ball with an autograph on it because he wants to prove to his friends that he really does have the autograph. After starting the car, Carlos receives an anonymous call on a phone that has been left inside and is told that a bomb has been placed under each of the car's seats, set to explode if any of them leaves their seated position. The devices will be deactivated only once Carlos transfers a large sum of money into the caller's account.

Carlos stops the car near the school to try to figure this out. Some kids from the school crowd wants to see the ball with the autograph, but Carlos cannot let Marcos get out to show the ball to his classmates and his friends think he was lying. Carlos calls one of his coworkers and they say the mysterious man on the phone (who will be referred to as "the stranger") called them too. Carlos and his coworker meet up and discuss the situation, still in each of their cars, blocking traffic.

Editorial summary

“Retribution (2015 film)” enters the record as 2015 Spanish film. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Retribution, film and Spanish can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2015—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2015. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Retribution, film and Spanish.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Retribution (2015 film)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Retribution, film and Spanish provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21218461. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2015.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Retribution (2015 film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Retribution (2015 film) primary sources, Retribution (2015 film) archive and Retribution research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Retribution (2015 film)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Retribution (2015 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.