Gold

Gold (Oro, 2017) is a Spanish historical adventure you can watch online on iFILM, and it has no interest in romanticizing the conquest. The year is 1538. On orders from Charles V, a column of conquistadors pushes deep into the Amazon to find a city said to be built entirely of gold.

The jungle thins the ranks long before any arrows fly. Fever, hunger and impassable green do half the work; the rest is done by the men themselves. Old and ailing, Don Gonzalo holds nominal command, but ambitious Alférez Gorriamendi and the soldier Martín de Vila both want his authority — and his young wife, Doña Ana. Raúl Arévalo, Bárbara Lennie and Óscar Jaenada head the cast.

Director Agustín Díaz Yanes works from a story by novelist Arturo Pérez-Reverte, and the result strips the genre of its swashbuckling shine. Here gold smells of mud, betrayal and rotting bodies. If you like hard-edged period drama with no heroes to root for, this one delivers. Stream Gold (2017) on iFILM.