Cautiva

CAUTIVA is an emotionally powerful story about a teenage girl in Argentina learning that she is one of the children of the "disappeared." The actress in the lead role is a fresh and wonderful surprise. The story builds entirely from her point of view, and the greatest pleasure of it is watching her mature and come to grips with her family and her past in front of our eyes. Direction is first-rate, and the film is an experience from which no one walks away unaffected.

This film tells of a young girl Cristina growing up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. One day her life gets turned upside down when court officials escort her from her school and inform her that she is really Sofía Lombardi, daughter of activists who disappeared during the 70s. From there begins a journey of searching for information about her parents and discovering her true identity.

"Captive" complements the film "The Official Story" very well and emphasized the importance of historical memory, both for a country and for an individual. Cristina, like Alicia ("The Official Story"), is blissfully living in ignorance of the truth until someone else brings it to her attention. Both female characters are at first doubtful of the fact that so many people simply "disappeared". Their doubt then turns to belief and surprise that they didn't know earlier.

Another story about the disappeared Argentinians, during the military regime in 70s Executed, others forced to leave their country,and many children left behind,to be adopted by couples close to the regime... A close look to real lives and tragedies

We take our heritage for granted. But, what is we are slapped in the face and told that the "parents" we have known for 15 years were not real, and our real parents were "disappeared" by a dictatorial regime? Of course, the film reminds us of the shame of our complicity in these regimes by showing Henry Kissinger snuggling up to the dictators.

Bárbara Lombardo (The Motorcycle Diaries) in her first feature film, captivates us as the teen faced with this harsh reality in Argentina. The pain she feels is obvious and she is torn from the only family she has ever known and learns to live with strangers, who are, in fact, her real relatives.

Television actress, Mercedes Funes, also was great as her new friend, who parents were also "disappeared." A really oustanding film by Gaston Biraben; a shameful part of Argentine and US history that cries out for justice that will never come.

Cautiva (2005)

Set in a period about ten years before its release, but dealing with issues of the Argentine dictatorship and disappearances from the late 1970s, this is a remarkably realistic and important look at one girl's astonishing involvement with the worst of it.

And if it sometimes is terribly linear in its storytelling, following this girl's realizations one after another (and her emotional burden as it grows and grows), the movie is still so convincing and sad and filled with national (Argentine) guilt it is totally riveting. Anyone interested in the horrors of Latin American dictatorships (left and right wing) and in the victims and survivors, this is a must-see.

Anyone else just interested in the plight of a single sixteen year old girl in a whirlwind of suspicions and lies and a few seemingly tender sympathizers, and see her cope and rise above and maybe, in fact, find a small amount of truth for herself, this is also really rewarding. You might find parallels in similar South American films such as "Machuca" but there is also a weird resemblance to many touching holocaust films that center on the plight of children whose identities get changed and whose histories are disrupted. Not to mention the tragedy of parents killed by cruel governments.

The filming here is really good but never something you'd notice (except one brief dream scene). What you will notice is the gravity and depth of the lead girl's performance. Barbara Lombardo was only 14 for filming (unlike a lot of movies where older girls play younger parts) and she alone makes the movie poignant and serious.

Oddly, this is officially a 2005 movie with its original Spanish title, and yet it gets listed here as "Captive" with a 2004 date. There is a lot left unsaid here, but in a way that's sufficient. It makes you want more.