Tied up, wounded and bleeding, a man wakes up in a coffin from which there is no escape.

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Tied up, wounded and bleeding, Paul Conroy wakes up in a coffin from which it is impossible to escape. After freeing himself from his ropes and the gag in his mouth, he discovers a portable phone and finds his lighter. He calls his family, his employer and the American officials and informs them of his situation: as the driver of one of the trucks sent to Iraq to help with the reconstruction of the country, Conroy has been kidnapped and buried for ransom, which he also has to negotiate by phone...

Making a low-budget ($3 million), 90-minute movie set in a coffin in which the star's face (Ryan Reynolds) is in 3/4 of all shots is the challenge faced by director Rodrigo Cortés. And the young Spanish filmmaker meets it superbly. From the start a somewhat vain exercise in style with powerful suspense, Buried turns into a moving and shocking drama denouncing war in general, and the American intervention in Iraq in particular.