The official story

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Movie
German title The official story
Original title La historia oficial
Country of production Argentina
original language Spanish
Publishing year 1985
length 112 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Luis Puenzo
Jaoquin Calatayud
script Aída Bortnik
Luis Puenzo
production Marcelo Piñeyro
music Atilio Stampone
song: María Elena Walsh
camera Félix Monti
cut Juan Carlos Macías
occupation

The official story is an Argentinean film drama of directors Luis Puenzo and Jaoquin Calatayud from 1985 .

The film is about a couple who live in Buenos Aires with their adopted child . The mother finds out that her daughter could be the child of desaparecidos who were kidnapped during the Dirty War in Argentina in the 1970s . The film won the 1986 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

action

The film is based on real events that took place in Argentina, during which thousands of politically left-wing people were secretly killed during the Dirty War from the mid-1970s.

The story begins after Alicia, a schoolteacher, and Roberto, a wealthy businessman, adopt little Gaby. After five years, Alicia starts to wonder what happened to Gaby's parents. Roberto advised her to forget about the story as it was part of the conditions of adoption. However, he knows the dirty story of his daughter's adoption, which means that her birth parents had previously been secretly killed by the military.

Difficult to believe, Alicia, like many others in Argentina, is unaware of the murders and tortures in her country until the students she teaches start complaining that the "government approved" history books are state-commissioned Murderers were written.

At the time, Alicia had a long conversation with her old friend Ana, who spent seven years in exile in Europe after being tortured by a paramilitary unit loyal to the brutal Argentine government for living with a so-called subversive. Alicia begins doing serious political and personal research on her own.

At a family dinner, Roberto Ibáñez has a political argument with his father and brother, where he takes the side of the conservative military elite while brother and father argue from the standpoint of social justice.

Alicia is chosen by an elderly lady who may be Gaby's grandmother and who reveals the identity of Gaby's alleged parents. Alicia also discovers that her husband was involved in the terrible government repression and heavy business overseas.

The film leaves open whether the old woman is actually Gaby's grandmother and thus also that the identity of Gaby's real family may never be revealed. This juxtaposition of fact and emotion is intended to evoke hope and hopelessness in response to a war environment.

The story ends tragically when Alicia confronts her husband with the facts. He wants her to forget the past and look to the family future, which is now threatened by her research. But then he gets angry and hits her head against the wall several times. Alicia fetches her keys and her purse and leaves the house through the front door. The film ends with a song which Gaby sings and which can be related to her own situation as well as to the history of Argentina.

background

The film is based on real political events during the Argentine military dictatorship (1976-1983) after Jorge Rafael Videla's reactionary military junta came to power on March 24, 1976. Parliament was dissolved during the rule of the junta; Associations, political parties and provincial governments were banned; and left-wing from 9000 to 30,000 "subversives" disappeared without leaving any trace what was later called " Dirty War became known."

The reference to forced adoptions is also historically correct. Numerous women arrested who gave birth in the torture detention center had their children taken away immediately after birth, and their mothers then killed. To this day, relatives of the people who "disappeared" ( Desaparecidos ) try to find these children, mostly given for adoption by officer's families . The confrontation with their true origin is usually a painful process for today's adult children - also because their supposed parents were often involved in the torture and murder of their actual birth mothers or both parents.

Like many progressive actors in the country, the film's leading actress, Norma Aleandro , was forced to go into exile during this time . She first traveled to Uruguay and later to Spain . After the fall of the military government in 1983, she returned. Aleandro once said, “Alicia's personal quest is also my nation's quest for the truth about our history. The film is positive in the way it demonstrates that she can change her life despite all that she is losing. "

The official story , along with a group of other films, was the first to be made after the overthrow of the last Argentine dictator, General Galtieri , and his autocratic regime. These films truthfully portray the suppression, torture and kidnapping in Argentina during this period. See also the section on cultural processing in the article Desaparecidos .

production

Initially, director Puenzo intended to secretly shoot the film using hidden 16mm cameras, fearing for his safety, but the junta was overthrown just as the script was being finalized.

The film was shot entirely in Buenos Aires, Argentina, including the Plaza de Mayo , where the Madres de Plaza de Mayo met in the late 1970s, holding up signs and pictures of those who disappeared during the Dirty War.

Awards

Won

Nominated

  • Academy Awards : Best Original Screenplay; 1986.
  • Cannes Film Festival: Palme d'Or, Luis Puenzo; 1985.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Marti: Videla convicted of child robbery. Argentina's judiciary speaks of the systematic appropriation of babies by the military. Neue Zürcher Zeitung online, July 7, 2012