Cautiva (2003)

Director:

Gaston Biraben

Writer:

Gaston Biraben (writer)

Release Date:

20 October 2005 (Argentina)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

A whole life ahead. A whole past to face.

Plot:

Cristina's life is thrown into turmoil when she is suddenly escorted from her strict Catholic school...

Plot Keywords:

Captive | Dictator | Military Coup

Awards:

5 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Bárbara Lombardo	...	Cristina Quadri / Sofía Lombardi
Susana Campos	...	Elisa Dominich
Hugo Arana	...	Juez Barrenechea
Osvaldo Santoro	...	Pablo Quadri
Noemí Frenkel	...	Licenciada Bernstein
Lidia Catalano	...	Martha
Mercedes Funes	...	Angélica
Silvia Baylé	...	Adela de Quadri
Luis Gianneo	...	Doctor Gómez
Margara Alonso	...	Hermana Teresa
Roxana Berco	...	Ana
Marcela Ferradás	...	Profesora Lucrecia
Antonio Ugo	...	Jorge Macías, Tuco
Floria Bloise	...	Madre Superiora
César Bordón	...	Raúl

Also Known As:

Captive (International: English title)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

Argentina

Language:

Spanish

Colour:

Colour

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

The Continuing Mystery of Argentina's 'Desaparecidos'

CAUTIVA ('Captive') is a very effective film by young writer/director Gaston Biraben who has taken to task the impact of Argentina's 'Dirty War' of the late 1970s and succeeds in making a very personal story out of the horror of the 'desaparecidos' tragedy that stole from Argentina some of its brightest minds - and 'reassigned' the children of these 'disappeared ones' who were born in the prisons to political friends of the dictatorship. While the concept is gruesome as history and as content, Biraben manages to recreate that terrifying period of time in terms of the present. This retrospective study makes a huge impact.

Cristina Quadri (the deeply impressive Bárbara Lombardo) lives with her parents in Buenos Aires, attending a Catholic girls' school, seemingly a happy young teenager. One regular day she is called to the principal's office and told she must visit a judge, a frightening concept for a young girl who is forced to go without informing her parents. The judge informs her that she is not 'Cristina Quadri' but instead 'Sofía Lombardi', the daughter of a couple who 'disappeared' in 1978 as political prisoners. A recent blood test Cristina/Sofia thought was a follow-up for a post-op check was actually a test to match her blood with that of the newly discovered true parents' family. Cristina, stunned by her lack of true identity, confronts her 'adopted parents' and struggles with the officials who insist she be returned to her blood relatives. Cristina becomes close to another 'adopted' girl and the two explore their roots, finding that they were born in prisons and then given to police officials to be placed in homes. The transition from adopted to blood family is the path the film explores: despite the comforts of present life the girls must know their origins to fully realize their identities.

The cast is uniformly strong, the concept of the film works well as Biraben snaps us back and forth between the World Cup Soccer Game in Buenos Aires in 1978 that contrasts so gravely with the concurrent underground disappearance of the intellects of the country, and the performance by Lombardo holds the credibility of the story well. There is a fine music score by José Luis Castiñeira de Dios that combines a suite for cello and piano with elements from Mozart's Requiem very effectively. This film has been awarded many prizes since its appearance in 2003: the prizes are justly deserved. Highly recommended viewing. Grady Harp