This movie rates a 10/10 AND a 10/10 - a 20, right? The first rating is for the superior direction, the phenomenal acting jobs by every member of the cast, and a DP that served the narrative in every shot. The second rating is for a STORY that is vital to tell and re-tell. All it takes is a lapse in attention to allow maniacal, authoritarian to commit heinous crimes against humanity. History has shown us this many times, and yet we forget that we must always be on guard. It is often a downhill slide into allowing some kind of Hitler/Pinochet/Putin to topple democracy, truth and decency. Trump came close. It starts innocently enough: Apple, and therefore it's purchasers and stockholders, support repression in China - a country that has it's own list of desaparacidos.)
Ricardo Darín is on very good form here as the wily and determined Argentinian state prosecutor Julio Strassera who is charged with leading the investigation into the activities of many of the most senior members of the military junta that lead post-Perón Argentina. Murder, rape, torture are just the tip of the criminal iceberg as he tries to assemble witnesses that have the courage to stand up and be heard in the face of intimidation and threats. Meantime, Strassner and his deputy Ocampo (Peter Lanzani) and their own families face intimidation as their case starts to gather steam, publicity and begins to illustrate to all watching just how brutal this regime actually was. The courtroom setting for a drama isn't always effective, but here Santiago Mitre uses it really well to help focus the attention on some poignant performances from the victims but to also demonstrate the power and symbolism of a State that had so recently been used as a tool of persecution for so many, yet now was a symbol of hope and progress. Darín and Lanzani work well together, the former offering a mixed performance of earnest and dedicated whilst still offering a degree of curmudgeonly humour to just, occasionally, lighten the mood a little to allow the audience to come up for air. As a Brit, it was also interesting to see so many of the figures prominent during the Falklands War appear in the dock - bedecked in their medalled finery. It gave the whole thing an added degree of authenticity that resonated a little beyond the borders of Argentina too. It's not compete - there are loose ends, but somehow that adds to the reality of reconciling in such a complex scenario where even justice has to be tempered with a degree of political realism. Very much worth a watch if you are interested in a tale of the worm that bravely and stoically turns.
