Hermanas

Natalia and Elene are two Argentinian sisters that had to go out of their country due to the dictatorship. Now (1984), after lots of years apart, they meet in Texas, where Elena lives. There, they will meet new people and old phantoms. As the wounds from the past are still open. The film is touching and is is done with good tune. The characters of the two sister are well build and the story is interesting, in the style of Coixet's films, where everything is hard and moving. Its main bad part is the fact that during the first hour almost nothing happens but the meeting of the two sisters, it develops slowly and it bores a little. After that, when Pandora's box is open, the real movie begins and we can enjoy 45 minutes of good cinema. Bad luck for the first part, but the drama is well set. With a little more of something at the beginning could have been much better, the result is just correct, despite the good second part.

This is a great movie. It deals with the strained relationship between two sisters. One is a politically active student in 1975, a member of the Argentine leftist-militant group the Montoñeros and the other is more concerned about starting a normal family life. When the military dictatorship begins in 1976, the academic sister is nearly captured by the government and has to flee abroad, while the other sister moves to Texas with her husband. The movie takes place in a flashback, as the two sisters meet for the first time in 8 years, in 1984, while the exiled one visits her sister in Texas, looking for a boyfriend who was taken captive by the dictatorship. The Texas sister wants to lead as normal life as possible, while the other wants to find answers.

Director Julia Solomonof has shown viewers that she can present a work that has an assured pace of a structured thriller while presenting a film that is basically a character study of two sisters reacting differently under the Argentinan dictatorship and reign of terror in 1970. She has learned the craft from working with Walter Salles on "The motorcycle diaries" as an assistant director.

I saw this Spanish/Argentinan/Brazilian co-production at the recently concluded Dubai International Film Festival and was bowled over by the competence of the director and the performances of the actors especially that of the young boy interacting with his aunt.

The film reminded me in many ways of Hungarian director Zoltan Fabri's "The Fifth Seal", a film set in Hungary under Nazi occupation, where friends crack under fear and pressure. "Hermanas" looks at how an individual can place priorities on saving a near one from torture, while others look at the moral responsibility beyond the immediate kith and kin. The film leaves you disturbed: does the family matter more than a larger community? Even philosophers will find this disturbing to answer--which is why the late Fabri related the question to the opening of the Fifth Seal in the Book of Revelations.

Julia Solomonof has proved her mettle. Though I am physically far removed from Argentina, Spain or Brazil, I will watch out for her next directorial effort with anticipation.

I had to watch this movie for Spanish 101. I was expecting something bad, since I am slightly biased against foreign films (Pan's Labyrinth being the one exception), but I was blown the wrong way.

The acting is bad, the characters, while in sympathetic situations, aren't that sympathetic themselves, and I found myself not really caring about any of it. The plot leaves out a lot of story, and even tantalizes us with a possible side plot that may wake the audience from their stupor, but drop it as well.

The one bright spot of this atrocious film is the child of one of the sisters.

Without the child, this would be 1/10. Only watch if you are assigned to watch it for a class. You are better off reading a book on the Ar gentian coup than watching this.

Stay away. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Acting, cinematography, screenplay, etc. Are all excellent. Really great film.