La historia oficial aka The Official Story, is a powerful Latin American movie set in Argentina right after the Dirty War during ’75-’80 ended. It centers around a high school upper middle class History teacher Alicia (Norma Aleandro) with an adopted daughter. She’s confronted with various harsh truths when she sets about trying to find her adopted daughter’s real parents.
This is one of the first movies to release about the “stolen babies” case during the War. Apparently, the screenplay for this had already been completed when the ‘junta’ government fell. It deals frankly with issues of repression, torture and the forced disappearances during that time. Alicia, while in conversation with her friend Ana, who had been tortured for having lived with a ‘subversive’ man, stumbles upon the possibility of her own adopted baby being stolen from her real mother. She begins an extensive research and unearths that her husband might have had a major role to play in the political regime.
Brilliant performances and a haunting, depressing story. 7/10
CineLex 