Reviewed - Lobo: THIS taut, factually based Spanish thriller takes place from 1973-75, during the final years of the Franco dictatorship. Eduardo Noriega plays Txema, a Basque construction worker reluctantly recruited by the secret service to infiltrate ETA, the Basque separatist group. Codenamed Lobo, Txema proved highly effective in destabilising the organisation.

The director is Miguel Courtois, who was born in Paris and educated in the Spanish Basque Country, the homeland of his mother's family. His flair for orchestrating credible and gripping action sequences is evident throughout, but its driving force is his fascination, which the viewer grows to share, with all the complications in Lobo's double life.

The film makes it clear that Franco's secret service was as willing to be rid of Lobo when he had served his purpose as it was eager to use him for two years before then. Simultaneously, it illustrates how the regime seized upon the terrorist activities of ETA to justify draconian anti-democratic measures, and it addresses the conflict within ETA as different voices advocate politics or terrorism.

Lobo is further conflicted by having to leave his wife and young daughter behind as he risks his life by taking on his new identity, and by his later sexual relationship with a terrorist (Mélanie Doutey) he knows he will betray. And he lives in fear of letting his cover slip and risking a deadly reprisal, even after his mission is accomplished.

Noriega is Lobo anchor, capturing all of Txema's inner turmoil. The performance is subtle and expressive, and then, when it has to be, impressively physical and energetic for the vigorous action set-ups that charge the film's parallel function as an edgy thriller.