‘When a River Becomes the Sea’ Review: A Sexual Assault Survivor Heals in Her Own Time in a Piercing Spanish Drama

The crime is never shown, nor explicitly detailed, in “When a River Becomes the Sea,” Catalan director Pere Vilà Barceló’s quiet, contemplative but cumulatively hard-hitting portrait of a young woman reassembling herself after a sexual assault. It certainly doesn’t need to be. Taking their protagonist, archaeology student Gaia, at her word and inviting the viewer […]