La Historia Oficial Movie

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La Historia Oficial was directed in 1985 by Luis Puenzo. The movie was filmed in and takes place in Argentina. The movie begins with a crowd of people singing the Argentinian National Anthem and paying tribute to the country they love. Argentina is a country of freedom, equality and “broken chains” according to the anthem. The movie follows the life of an upper middle class couple who seem to be well off. Roberto (the husband) works as a wealthy business man, and Alicia (his wife) works at a boys prep school as a History teacher. Roberto and Alicia have a five year old daughter named Gabby whom they adopted from the hospital just after her birth (after years of failed attempts at trying to have their own baby). La Historia Oficial is significant if one is interested in understanding a part of Argentinian history which is often concealed by those who are unaware of the brutality inflicted by the Argentinian government in the 1970’s. When we first are introduced to Alicia we see that she is a stickler for the rules and loves structure. She tells her students that only the things within the history books will be discussed in her classroom. The students believed that history books were full of lies and nonsense and were written by assassins but Alicia just believes the boys are foolish. When Ana (a good friend of Alicia) comes to visit, Alicia questions why Ana had left the country without so much as a goodbye. Ana tells Alicia that she had been kidnapped and held captive by the government for over a month and tortured. After Ana was released, she fled the country. Ana tells her that many people had been held captive as well. Ana reveals that among those who were taken captive were many pregnant women, who had their babies taken aw... ... middle of paper ... ...oint that the viewer realizes that little Gabby may never know the truth about what has happened to her mother and father. This movie was beautifully produced. I don’t believe another director could have done as good of a job as Luis Puenzo did. I believe Puenzo was able to bring this story to life and allow us to be able to really relate to each character intricately because he lived through the uncertainty and witnessed the agony faced by many, and he made all of the emotions real through this work. I also believe that having actors and actresses that lived through the experience was an excellent move. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who is looking to learn a little bit about Argentinian culture and history, or to anyone who is simply looking for some quality entertainment. La Historia Oficial is a masterpiece that should be enjoyed by many.

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