I found this Argentinian (Spanish language) film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the title did not suggest anything particular to me, but the Academy Award win, plot description and of course the recommendation was enough for me to try it. Basically the period known as the Dirty War has concluded, in Buenos Aires lives high school history professor and well-to-do housewife Alicia Marnet de Ibáñez (Norma Aleandro) who is happily married to government agent and successful lawyer husband Roberto (Héctor Alterio), and together they have adopted daughter Gaby (Analia Castro). It is on the daughter's fifth birthday that Alicia becomes curious to know about Gaby's real parents, but her husband avoids the topic and tells her to ignore it, he obviously knows the official story of how their daughter came to be available for adoption. Alicia's longtime friend Ana (Chunchuna Villafañe) returns from exile, she explains how she was tortured and being held for having lived with a man labelled as subversive, and she tells of seeing children taken from their parents who are put in jail, Alicia wonders if Gaby's parents went through this also. Alicia searches for birth and heritage records of Gaby at a hospital, there she learns of an organisation searching for missing children, a woman there, Sara (Chela Ruíz), claims to recognise Gaby as her granddaughter, and says that her parents disappeared. Like other members of the Argentine upper class Alicia is not aware of a lot of killing and suffering has gone on in the country, her views are challenged by fellow teacher Benitez (Patricio Contreras) and some of the students, she does report a student, but Benitez protects him, the two teachers do eventually become friendly as Alicia's research comes together. Roberto meanwhile is stressing at work, with many of his colleagues disappearing, he is also confronted by Ana who she blames partly for her arrest, and he comes to blows with his liberal father and brother, and he is furious when Alicia brings Sara home to meet him. That evening Alicia surprises Roberto, telling him that Gaby is not home and saying "how does it feel not knowing where your child is?", she does tell him Gaby is at his mother's house, he becomes enraged and assaults her, this stops when the phone rings, it is Gaby singing a nursery rhyme to Roberto, Alicia meanwhile gets her purse and leaves her key as she walks out, the final shot is Gaby continuing to sing, whilst with her adopted grandparents. I will be honest that occasionally whilst watching this film I found it a little tricky to keep up with, probably because of the subtitles reading, I dozed at one point and had to rewind back, thankfully I did get the concept, I can see why it rated well and won the awards it did, it is an interesting story based on parenthood, with a mix of trust issues, politics and human rights, a watchable drama film. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and it was nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, and it won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. Good!
Review of The Official Story
