User reviews

La Historia Official is a well-made film about awakening from passive complicity in evil, in this case, forced adoption. The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo were and are an inspiration to those who struggle to uncover and resist abuses in adoption practices, be they the enslaved Irish women of the Magdalen laundries or the many indigenous peoples who had children forcibly removed from homes to be adopted by whites. Most of adoption does not involve abduction, but to turn a blind eye to the fact that it does exist, is to be passively complicit, as was the protagonist in this film.

The scene in which the teacher realizes that tremendous evil has indeed been perpetrated, and that she may very well be the beneficiary of such evil, is staggering. Norma Aleandro is a talented enough actress that we believe her initial rejection of this revelation, and her gradual evolution from passive cohort to courageous seeker of the truth.

In the powerful 1985 film The Official Story, Director Luis Puenzo tells the story of a teacher's awakening to conscience at the end of Argentina's "Dirty War" of the late 70s and early 80s. As in Pinochet's Chile, the military secret police sought to consolidate their power by routinely torturing and murdering students, political activists, opponents of the regime, and even expectant mothers. Many ended up as desaparecidos, people taken by the government and not returned. The film is about one mother's search for the truth about her adopted daughter and her discovery brings harsh political reality very close to home.

In The Official Story, Alicia (Norma Aleandro) lives a comfortable middle class life. She teaches History to high school students and enjoys a family that includes her well-to-do husband Roberto (Hector Alterio) and 5-year old adopted daughter Gaby (Analia Castro). Not used to asking questions, she believes whatever she has read in history books and is confused when one of her students tells her that "history is written by assassins." She sees the demonstrations of the "Mothers of Plaza de Mayo", a group seeking information about missing family members but remains uninvolved. When her friend Ana (Chunchuna Villafane) visits after living in exile for many years, however, she learns, in an intensely emotional scene, that Ana had been imprisoned and tortured by the police trying to locate her husband, a suspected "subversive".

Ana tells Alicia that many others had "disappeared" and that babies had been taken from their mothers and given to childless friends of the junta. Alicia begins to wonder if her own child was the daughter of a political victim and questions her husband but when he is evasive, she suspects that he may be hiding a dark secret. Although fearful at the prospect of losing Gaby, Alicia is determined to find out about her daughter's past and begins to search hospital records and government archives. Ultimately, she must confront her own responsibility in a climax of shattering force that underscores the tragedy of political ideologues who would rather destroy family solidarity than risk losing power.

I cry each time I watch this film. (The scene with Norma Aleandro and the baby clothes) Always gets me. An American film-maker would have made a film about one of the "desaparecidos" (disappeared ones) - but Puenzo is too sharp for that - by making a film about one of the quietly complicit, he has indicted all of us who are aware that things aren't quite right in the world, but choose to ignore the fact...and do nothing. Devastating, political and yet personal. My all-time favorite film.

Luis Puenzo's 'La Historia Official' captures a moment in Argentine history from the perspective less common for it's home audience; the aristocracy. Inside the junta military (military rule) of Argentina from 1976-1983 there were many like Alecia Marnet, with their upper class stability and indifference to a rule that left them in power of their own destinies. Alecia is somewhat different in her work as a history teacher seemingly unaware of how history is written by the victors. Her subsequent change of heart parallels that of her country, without which change this film could never have made.

There are plenty of compelling stories within 'La Historia Official' that sensitively portray the atrocities suffered by the Argentines at the hand of their own rulers. When Alecia is told of the uncharged detention and torture of her high school friend in a first hand account could hardly believe that such horrors could be committed by those who helped her family build a good life. She dismisses her students' news articles and pleads for peaceful renewal in the country, even threatening to expel them for questioning the official history accounts. Alecia at first reacts in denial to these challenges to authority in protection of herself from feeling guilt and shame for having benefited from others' suffering. It is entirely necessary for her to take the experience personally, through finding her daughter's true identity, for Alecia to accept and then come to terms with her own and her nation's true identity. This psychodrama is furthered by her own husband's opposition to the truth; his definition of success is motivated only when he is recognized with respect. As Alecia finds her husband's own family cannot respect his work, and she in turn can no longer respect him for his deceit, she in turn becomes one of the people before Argentina frees itself from its fascist rulers.

There's much to love in any film made about the people like those who are making it. 'La Historia Official' may not represent anything distinctive technically from other films, but its story is a powerful tribute to its own country. The film however is entirely universal. Had the film taken place in fascist Spain or any other fascist ruled country, the only differences would probably be cultural and historical. Through Alecia we find the ability to learn the truth and rise in opposition within ourselves. 'La Historia Official' shows us the truth lay dormant within ourselves but should not be ignored for the sake of accepting the history we are told.

Its hard to convey just how moving this movie is. Its absolutely haunting, I thought about this flick for days afterwards. I don't think it represents the experiences of many Argentines during the era of the juntas, but it clearly shows how awful those times were and why Argentines never want to return to that situation again.

As a Father and Grandfather, I was moved with emotion by this film. The director and the actors portrayed this time in history perfectly. I was sadden to read that families still come together demanding answers from the Argentinian Government. These kinds of movies need to exist. They stimulate discussion to assure that justice exists in this world. This is an excellent movie to help with these necessary discussions. I'm glad I saw this film.

This film unfolds so purposefully as if each frame has been chosen with exquisite care. From the lighting to the framing of each shot to the near perfect performances the viewer goes on a journey into the darker and darker mystery as a loving adoptive mother must ask "where did this precious child come from?" If you want to get an inkling of life in Argentina in 1985 and the true meaning of "los disaparacidos" (the disappeared ones) see this one.

"The Official Story" plot appears in depth both on its IMDB.com home page and in user comments. A thumbnail, however, is: A bourgeois Buenos Aires high school history teacher and mother of an adopted 5 year old girl begins to suspect her daughter may have been born to one of Argentina's thousands of missing people (Los Desaparecidos) who disappeared (probably kidnapped, tortured, etc.) while the nation was in the grip of a junta (1976-1983). This Oscar winner is a very well directed and acted human drama with ominous rumbling political undercurrents which stays focused on Aleandro's sterling portrayal of the mother though it does raise the specter of tainted official history. Unfortunately the DVD I rented had VHS quality video and white subtitles with no outline (making them difficult to read on light backgrounds). Recommended for foreign film buffs and Spanish speakers into drama. (B)

I saw this movie in my first-year Spanish class. I love all kinds of movies, both international and domestic. This is by far one of the best movies I have seen in the international field with particular focus on the character development of one woman who seems to have everything. In coming to terms with the truth of her lifestyle and the high price others have paid for her comfort, she becomes a heroine who must give up almost everything she has loved and felt identified who she is. This movie is both heartbreaking and reassuring for its audience. I highly recommend it as a thoughtful depiction of how ignoring politics can imply inadvertently becoming an accomplice.

I could spend all day just listing the awards this film won. Besides the Best Foreign Film Oscar, it won 21 other awards and had an additional 3 nominations. It is rare to see a film win almost everything it was nominated for, but this film is just that powerful. The performance by Norma Aleandro, who won every award she was nominated for, save one, was so great that I am anxious to see that one performance that exceed hers.

This is Director Luis Puenzo's greatest work, a work that he wrote with Aída Bortnik. It is a powerful story of children stolen from families in Argentina and given to those who support the government. I couldn't help but think of the child protective system in this country, where the weight is heavily towards taking children and getting them adopted as soon as possible instead of trying to work with families to fix their problems. There isn't must difference between that and what was done in Argentina.

I am also reminded that the real heroes in the world are not those who wear body armor and have sophisticated weapons, but those who stand naked and march for justice. This happens over and over in South America, where we have supported military juntas that oppress the people.

This is a beautiful and powerful film. Look for it.

After the end of the Dirty War, a high school teacher sets out to find out who the mother of her adopted daughter is.

Like many progressive actors and others in the country, the lead actress in the film, Norma Aleandro, was forced into exile. She traveled to Uruguay first and Spain later. She returned after the fall of the military government in 1983. Aleandro once said, "Alicia's personal search is also my nation's search for the truth about our history. The film is positive in the way it demonstrates that she can change her life despite all she is losing." Argentina's history is a dark one. It may not get the coverage of Nicaragua, El Salvador or Chile, but it had some of the same problems of unrest in the 20th century. In fact, few places in Central and South America seemed to have it easy, with dictators sprouting up all over. Some of them, sad to say, were put there and / or backed by the United States, something we as a nation have still not properly atoned for.

Whether by choice or not, director Luis Puenzo has remained largely an Argentine filmmaker. He did make an American film (or at least a film with American actors) in 1989, "Old Gringo", but then went back to Argentina. One wonders what the difference is that makes some directors go international and others go into relative obscurity outside their home countries.

I love this movie.

I don't enjoy political movies in general, like the ones that Costa Gavras make. Usually they are so busy educating people on the issues that they forget the real point of a movie - to tell a good story.

The Official Story is an exception in the genre: it is well written, well acted, has characters that you can relate to... AND tells a story that helps you understand violence as committed by the state. It is moving, has a human dimension as opposed to epic and detached.

A perfect 10.

A searing political exposé situated in the immediate aftermath of Argentina's Dirty War (1976- 1983), director Luis Puenzo's second feature THE OFFICIAL STORY became the first Argentinian movie to snatch Oscar's BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE PICTURE laurels.

In 1983, the seemingly perfect life of a middle-class high-school history teacher Alicia Ibáñez (Aleandro) starts to crack when she begins to suspect the birth parents of her adopted daughter Gaby (Castro, an elfin darling), now 5-year-old, might be victims of political persecutions during the military dictatorship. She is determined to find out the truth and inexorably clashes with her husband Roberto (Alterio), who is a well-off government representative and might be in the knowing from the very start.

Puenzo and his co-screenwriter Aída Bortnik import a limpid script to set Alicia to embark on a late-but-better-than-never realization of her country's buried horror which implausibly has been eluded by her until that point, as one of her colleagues Benítez (Contreras) jests that nothing is more gratifying than a guilty bourgeois woman.

What makes Alicia tick is the return of her best friend Ana (Villafañe) from abroad, during an escalatingly poignant two-hander from the two magnificent actresses, Ana confesses to her that she was subjected to torture by the secret police (she is an associate of a subversive) and was forced into exile. Ana's account jolts Alicia into facing up with that troubling question, at the same time, a subplot pertains to the rebellious polemic of Alicia's students (atrociously played by actors much maturer than high schoolers) also vouch for the progress on her conscience. When she finally meets Sara (Ruíz), possibly Gaby's biological grandmother, she bestirs herself with a final attempt to reason with her intransigent husband.

Apart from the film's polemical angle in cashing in on a topical powder keg, in retrospect, the film's more lingering sway is underlain by its less argumentative depiction of women's place in a typical patriarchal society, through our heroine, Alicia is an ordinary woman in every aspect, mostly hedged in her domestic remit, a mother and a wife, Roberto has never cared to ask anything about her job, as if it is just a hobbyhorse to keep her busy. During Roberto's apoplectic wrangle with his leftist father Jose (Battaglia) and brother Enrique (Arana), Alicia's total silence speaks volumes in that tableau vivant - women have no voice in politics (neither in religion, as glanced through Alicia's vain endeavor inside a confessional, belittled by a snotty man of God), they are subservient, ancillary and biddable, but, as a human being, every sane soul is endowed with the judgment of right and wrong, and Puenzo's sensible work pays the highest homage to that, which makes the ending incredibly uplifting albeit with such a small gesture, as it would happen in real life.

Puenzo assembles an ace cast, Villafañe, Battaglia, Ruíz are all bankable scene-stealers, but no one can upstage Norma Aleandro's pyrotechnics, which oozes heartfelt nuance to countervail a melodramatic milieu Alicia is entangled with and staunchly refuses any trace of ham. On the other hand, Héctor Alterio embodies Roberto, a mouthpiece of the junta, with repulsion-inducing exertion as the sole villain in the film, an outstanding feat to accomplish out of a less well-rounded character.

All in all, Puenzo's blunt cri-de-coeur is graced with a lyrical accompanying score and an encroaching camera-work as if it tries to delve as deep as possible into its characters' psyche, an engaging infotainment with humanity unflaggingly glistening in its nucleus.

Adoption can be a harrowing business at the best of times, and the final scene of 'La Historia Oficial' probably represents The End of the Beginning rather than The Beginning of the End. The real drama almost certainly still lies ahead when sweet little moppet Ana discovers the reality about her parents; as teenaged Ann Blyth traumatically did thirty-five years earlier in the Goldwyn production 'Our Very Own' (1950).

This film is ok, good, rating 6.

But if you pay attention you will realize that in all the scenes the socialist characters are kind and the capitalists are completely evil.

La Historia Oficial is an excellent movie. It is also the testimony of the suffering of the Argentinian people during the military dictatorship. But those who are not from Argentina, like myself, can very well be touched by this movie. I was observing the cruelty of the government and thought "my God, totalitarism is always the same, and no matter if the violation of human rights occurs in Argentina under the military regime, in Cuba under the Castro dictatorship, in Chile under Pinochet, in Europe during Hitler, people suffer the same and the least we can do is to feel compassion". A good lesson from this movie, generation after generation we shouldn't forget the victims. They deserve justice.