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Argentina · 2004
1h 55m
Director Gaston Biraben
Starring Bárbara Lombardo, Susana Campos, Hugo Arana, Osvaldo Santoro
Genre Drama
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Cristina's life is thrown into turmoil when she is suddenly escorted from her strict Catholic school in Buenos Aires and told that she is really Sofía Lombardi, the daughter of activists who disappeared in the '70s. Questioning everything she once thought true, Cristina embarks on a journey to find her true identity. Meeting others like herself, the young girl soon discovers the real-life horrors of Argentina's relatively recent past and the nightmare that claimed tens of thousands of lives during the country's "dirty war."
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If Biraben had devoted more energy to the human contours of his story, its metaphorical implications would have sorted themselves out. Instead, he herds his characters toward a foregone conclusion, reducing both their scope and his story's power.
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
The middle section of the film has some of the superficiality of a made-for-Lifetime drama of female distress and resilience, a bit too eager to make its points and solve its dramatic problems at the cost of the messiness that would bring the story fully to life.
Gripping drama.
Intelligent, moving film.
Part detective story, part coming of political age saga, and all teenage identity crisis, Captive is the first film written and directed by Gaston Biraben , who has worked steadily as a Hollywood sound editor since the early '90s. That professionalism shows in the polished filmmaking as well as an occasional tendency toward shallower melodrama than the situation deserves.
The initial suspense of Cautiva gives way to sentimental clichés, but Lombardo's performance (including a daring nude scene) keeps us watching.
His fear began when he woke up alone. His terror began when he realised he wasn't.
A masterpiece of modern horror.
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