Cautiva (2004)

I wanted to but couldn't!

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Cautiva (2005)Set in a period about ten years before its release, but dealing with issues of the Argentine dictatorship and disappearances from the late 1970s, this is a remarkably realistic and important look at one girl's astonishing involvement with the worst of it.And if it sometimes is terribly linear in its storytelling, following this girl's realizations one after another (and her emotional burden as it grows and grows), the movie is still so convincing and sad and filled with national (Argentine) guilt it is totally riveting. Anyone interested in the horrors of Latin American dictatorships (left and right wing) and in the victims and survivors, this is a must-see.Anyone else just interested in the plight of a single sixteen year old girl in a whirlwind of suspicions and lies and a few seemingly tender sympathizers, and see her cope and rise above and maybe, in fact, find a small amount of truth for herself, this is also really rewarding. You might find parallels in similar South American films such as "Machuca" but there is also a weird resemblance to many touching holocaust films that center on the plight of children whose identities get changed and whose histories are disrupted. Not to mention the tragedy of parents killed by cruel governments.The filming here is really good but never something you'd notice (except one brief dream scene). What you will notice is the gravity and depth of the lead girl's performance. Barbara Lombardo was only 14 for filming (unlike a lot of movies where older girls play younger parts) and she alone makes the movie poignant and serious.Oddly, this is officially a 2005 movie with its original Spanish title, and yet it gets listed here as "Captive" with a 2004 date. There is a lot left unsaid here, but in a way that's sufficient. It makes you want more.

This film hearkens back to the magnificent The Official Story, and it helps form a body of work for humanity that might be filed under the "never forget" category. Artistically, it's not a mature work, and is imperfect. Emotionally, it is wrenching. The brief mentions of American training and support of the brutal Argentinian military junta, were uncomfortable; they raised feelings about how much damage this country has aided and abetted in recent years. There's a note at the end that explains that the criminals responsible for "the disappeared," and the damaged children at the heart of the movie, have never been brought to justice. Well, here too. The people responsible for overthrowing Allende, for carpet bombing in Vietnam, for destabilizing and supporting the contras in Nicaragua, and on and on, are still invited to the White House for state dinners.

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

CAUTIVA is an emotionally powerful story about a teenage girl in Argentina learning that she is one of the children of the "disappeared." The actress in the lead role is a fresh and wonderful surprise. The story builds entirely from her point of view, and the greatest pleasure of it is watching her mature and come to grips with her family and her past in front of our eyes. Direction is first-rate, and the film is an experience from which no one walks away unaffected.