A História Oficial

I saw this movie in my first-year Spanish class. I love all kinds of movies, both international and domestic. This is by far one of the best movies I have seen in the international field with particular focus on the character development of one woman who seems to have everything. In coming to terms with the truth of her lifestyle and the high price others have paid for her comfort, she becomes a heroine who must give up almost everything she has loved and felt identified who she is. This movie is both heartbreaking and reassuring for its audience. I highly recommend it as a thoughtful depiction of how ignoring politics can imply inadvertently becoming an accomplice.

In the powerful 1985 film The Official Story, Director Luis Puenzo tells the story of a teacher's awakening to conscience at the end of Argentina's "Dirty War" of the late 70s and early 80s. As in Pinochet's Chile, the military secret police sought to consolidate their power by routinely torturing and murdering students, political activists, opponents of the regime, and even expectant mothers. Many ended up as desaparecidos, people taken by the government and not returned. The film is about one mother's search for the truth about her adopted daughter and her discovery brings harsh political reality very close to home.

In The Official Story, Alicia (Norma Aleandro) lives a comfortable middle class life. She teaches History to high school students and enjoys a family that includes her well-to-do husband Roberto (Hector Alterio) and 5-year old adopted daughter Gaby (Analia Castro). Not used to asking questions, she believes whatever she has read in history books and is confused when one of her students tells her that "history is written by assassins." She sees the demonstrations of the "Mothers of Plaza de Mayo", a group seeking information about missing family members but remains uninvolved. When her friend Ana (Chunchuna Villafane) visits after living in exile for many years, however, she learns, in an intensely emotional scene, that Ana had been imprisoned and tortured by the police trying to locate her husband, a suspected "subversive".

Ana tells Alicia that many others had "disappeared" and that babies had been taken from their mothers and given to childless friends of the junta. Alicia begins to wonder if her own child was the daughter of a political victim and questions her husband but when he is evasive, she suspects that he may be hiding a dark secret. Although fearful at the prospect of losing Gaby, Alicia is determined to find out about her daughter's past and begins to search hospital records and government archives. Ultimately, she must confront her own responsibility in a climax of shattering force that underscores the tragedy of political ideologues who would rather destroy family solidarity than risk losing power.

This Piece was powerful and thought provoking. It was also perhaps the most depressing film I have ever seen in my life. The tragic story leaves the viewer with a somewhat empty feeling, which is appropriate. The sad fact is that thousands of families in Argentina fell the emptiness that this film induces every single day of their lives. Hector Alterio spectacularly portrays the jaded and evil Roberto, who works with the corrupt ruling military junta. One truly grasps a sense of the insecurities and weakness behind such bullies.

This movie is a wakeup call for anyone who believes that apathy is okay. The truth is that the tragedies in Argentina in the 1970's were partly allowed to occur because of the ignorance and apathy of both people within Argentina and in the outside world. Hopefully, by watching this film, people will resolve to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.

La Hitoria Oficial is a spectacular film to learn about a subject which receives little or no attention in the US. However, be warned: it is one of the most tragic films you may ever see in your life. You will leave the film both saddened and angered that nothing was done to prevent these horrible crimes.

La Historia Oficial is an excellent movie. It is also the testimony of the suffering of the Argentinian people during the military dictatorship. But those who are not from Argentina, like myself, can very well be touched by this movie. I was observing the cruelty of the government and thought "my God, totalitarism is always the same, and no matter if the violation of human rights occurs in Argentina under the military regime, in Cuba under the Castro dictatorship, in Chile under Pinochet, in Europe during Hitler, people suffer the same and the least we can do is to feel compassion". A good lesson from this movie, generation after generation we shouldn't forget the victims. They deserve justice.

I cry each time I watch this film. (The scene with Norma Aleandro and the baby clothes) Always gets me. An American film-maker would have made a film about one of the "desaparecidos" (disappeared ones) - but Puenzo is too sharp for that - by making a film about one of the quietly complicit, he has indicted all of us who are aware that things aren't quite right in the world, but choose to ignore the fact...and do nothing. Devastating, political and yet personal. My all-time favorite film.