The Official Story (1985)
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The Official Story Movie Review
The Official Story is a 1985 Argentine historical drama film directed by Luis Puenzo and starring Norma Aleandro. It’s such a good, emotional film.
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“History is written by assassins“
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The film deals with the story of an upper middle class couple from Buenos Aires with an illegally adopted child. The mother comes to realize that her daughter may be a victim of the forced appearances that occurred during Argentina’s last dictatorship. Obviously, the film deals with an immensely serious, difficult and painful chapter in Argentine history.
It is thus very difficult to watch, but important nonetheless. This is one of the powers of film – it acquaints you with a different culture and the history of a certain nation. The Official Story does that beautifully through an intimate portrait of family life while still feeling ambitious and epic. I loved that approach as it led to a more human instead of documentary-like film.
I wanted a bigger emphasis on kids in the film as the children should be more important for this story, but the adults are great. Hector Alterio is very good in his admittedly unlikable role and of course Norma Aleandro gives a powerhouse performance that won her an award at Cannes and thankfully so as she excelled in a very demanding role. Her character changes from a disinterested to a personally affected in tragedy woman and it was interesting following that transition.
The Official Story has its problems. One is the pace which is rather slow in its first half and I particularly found the first act meandering as some scenes weren’t all that necessary for the bigger scope of things. The same goes for the film’s focus which sometimes isn’t on the right people and thus the film was not as engaging or as urgent as it could have been.
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But still this is a very strong, powerful drama that is an important viewing for anyone interested in Argentine history. It is well shot, very well directed by Luis Puenzo and particularly emotional in its approach, but never manipulative. The final act is so moving and tragic. It’s a film that never forgets to be human and it focuses thankfully more on characterization and intimate portrayals of people instead of politics. It entirely deserved its Oscar.
The Official Story needed a better pace as it meanders a bit in certain scenes, but it’s so well directed and particularly well acted by Norma Aleandro who was amazing in a very demanding role as such a complex, interesting character. This is a very serious, difficult to watch film which explores a particularly painful chapter in Argentine history with a lot of care, emotion and a thankful emphasis on intimacy and characterization instead of more ambitious politics.
