The discovery of dead horses and a Spanish soldier's corpse under a frozen lake in the Russian front(with their heads visible over the ice, like in Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg") triggers an investigation lead by a former Spanish police inspector, now serving in the German army.
"Silencio en la nieve" tells a fictional story based on a real scenario: the presence of Spanish citizens in the German army during the WWII under the name "División azul". Albeit most of this soldiers were of extremely right-wing ideals, others were adventure junkies or even left-winged persons sent to the Russian front in order to help their politically imprisoned relatives.
Curiously there are only brief hints about that in Gerardo Herrero's excellent movie, which doesn't judge or excuse the character's ideals. This is practically an untold story in the annals of Spanish film history (nobody wants to film the exploits of military men who sided with Hitler), but we will have to wait for a war film about this subject (Spanish movie industry has no money for that, Gerardo Herrero dixit), because "Silencio en la nieve" is a murder mystery, and a well crafted one. The acting is superb, specially Carmelo Gómez. On a technical level, some of the special effects needed more budget (a couple of explosions seemed very CGI to me), but these problems are usual in Spanish cinema, and they are approached professionally here.
Eventually, viewers should consider "Silencio en la nieve" for what it is: well done, although not original, thriller yarn, using a fresh and never seen background. Highly recommended!