Alicia, a history teacher and wealthy housewife, is torn apart in this movie. Her comfortable life is changes when she comes face to face with her husband's dealings with the military government. Alicia and her husband, Roberto, have a young daughter who they adopted at birth. Roberto brought the baby home without any explanation. Alicia spends the next years with the assumption her baby girl was not wanted by her birth mother. Suddenly several things happento change that.
Ana, Alicia's old friend, reappears after her disappearance of many years. She explains in detail to Alicia how she was imprisoned and tortured for several months. Ana tells about prisoners who delivered babies in prison but the babies were taken away and sold to people who "didn't ask questions". Demonstrations are being held in the streets, demanding the return of those who "disappeared". The students in Alicia's history class are questioning the government stating "history is written by assassins."
I do not believe Alicia is able to reconcile her beliefs that her daughter is the child of a murdered political prisoner. She comes to believe that her daughter may be the granddaughter of Sara, a demonstrator. She also realizes her husband is involved with the military campaign. At the beginning of the movie Alicia is totally naive to what is going on about her. At the end she recognizes the truth, and she leaves Roberta because she cannot go along with what he is doing. However, the movie does not let us know if Alicia tells the child the truth or lets her meet her grandmother. This was another sad movie, especially knowing similar scenarios most likely did happen in the 1970's when Argentine was in much turmoil.
Brenda Johnson
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