The Official Story - LA HISTORIA OFICIAL

Country: Argentina

Drama

Cast: Norma Aleandro “Alicia”, Hector Alterio “Roberto”, Chela Ruiz “Sara”, Chunchuna Villafane “Ana”, Hugo Arana “Enrique”
Director: Luis Puenzo
Screenplay: Aida Bortnik, Luis PuenzoThis is an emotionally gripping, fictional look at a couple torn apart by the infamous Argentine campaign of killings and torture that sent thousands of accused terrorists to unmarked graves in the mid-and late-'70s. Alicia (Norma Aleandro) and Roberto (Hector Alterio) adopted a little girl (Analia Castro) during this period of governmental terror in Argentina. Alicia has always wondered about the parents of their little girl, a topic her husband has forced her into forgetting as a condition of the adoption -- he alone knows the full story. Thanks to censorship, Alicia -- like others -- is not fully aware of how much killing has gone on until her students at school start complaining that their textbook histories were written by murderers. Add to this a long conversation with a friend who had been in exile after she was tortured by the government, and Alicia starts to do some serious political and personal research on her own. The results reveal the identity of the little girl's dead parents and reveal that Alicia's husband has had a nasty hand in the government repression and dirty dealings with foreign businesses. She also learns the identity of the girl's grandmother. Her next decision will determine what to do with this informationThe

The Official Story was released in 1985. It is an Argentinian Drama depicting the fictional story of a woman who is married to a military man and finds out that her “adopted” daughter was one of the children that had disappeared during the dirty ward of the 1970s, when people were abducted by the military for suspicion of terrorism and never seeing again, including their children or soon to be born babies. More than 45,000 people disappeared after they were tortured or raped, and subsequently killed. Although this movie is not based on a real story, they do depict the realities of many in Argentina and the story of many others who eventually were found by the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. The movie won  the Oscar for1985's Best Foreign Language Movie.

I lived through that era, saw the stories first hand and felt the cruelty of the Military in power.  I can assure you that this movie is close to real life and very moving. Both men and women would enjoy watching it.