The Official Story

Director: Luis Puenzo
Year Released: 1985
Rating: 2.0

Instructor Alicia (Norma Aleandro), who lives with her husband Roberto (Héctor Alterio) and their "adopted" five-year-old daughter Gaby (Analía Castro), teaches "Argentine History" to a classroom of all boys but seems bewilderingly unaware of the actual events taking place in her country, so when she does investigative work into Gaby's background, she discovers her biological mother "disappeared" as a result of the cruel "policies" of the National Reorganization Process (which controlled the nation from 1976 to 1983).  This won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (and is celebrated in Argentina), although I see it as being more important as a historical document than a dramatic one: there are a few strongly emotional parts, like Alicia's friend Ana (Chunchuna Villafañe) talking about getting captured and tortured and the sad final scene (which involves "government official" Roberto turning violent) but otherwise it feels somewhat mechanically plotted out ... and reasonably affluent Alicia sure does enjoy her fancy meals and willfully ignorant existence.  What doesn't get mentioned was how the United States (once again) backed the junta during most of those years, and some of the blood is on our collective hands.  Current day kids won't learn any of this in an A.P. class: as a student bravely declares, the past is written by murderers.