On DVD: Cautiva

Directed By Gaston Biraben

Starring Barbara Lombardo, Susana Campos, Hugo Arara, Osvaldo Santoro, Noemi Frenkel, Mercedes Funes, Silvia

I looked up the word ‘Cautiva’ in an on-line Spanish-English dictionary and found two meanings. Cautiva can be a synonym for aprisionar, to capture or to take prisoner. It can also be the same as fascinar, meaning to charm or captivate. Both apply to this 2003 Argentinian film released in the US this year from Koch Lorber Films.

The Movie

Cristina Quadri (played beautifully by young Barbara Lombardo) is the daughter of an affluent Argentinian couple who has a near-perfect life; loving parents, nice Catholic school, lots of friends, beautiful home, ignorant of the realities of her country’s bloody, dictatorial past. Almost as soon as she is made aware of the problems in Argentina outside the gates of her beautiful homes, she is forced to face strangers who change her reality forever – she is really named Sofia, her parents are not her parents, and her real parents are one of ‘The Disappeared’.

In the 70s, many who spoke against the government of Argentina were taken from homes and vanished, never to be seen again. Many were sent to concentration camps hidden in Buenos Aries. Director/Screenwriter Gaston Biraben is not subtle in his opinions of his country’s government, but his heavy-handed treatment of the issues here are balanced by Lombardi’s performance.  The film is from her point of view, and the film is more about this girl and the tragic circumstances she is thrust into. Who does she trust? The people who has raised her and love her? The kind stranger who claims to be her grandmother? The judge who tested her blood

without her knowledge? The psychiatrist who says she cares only for Cristina (or is it Sofia?) but who constantly but subtly corrects her when she talks about “my parents”. Later in the film we are faced with the questions of what really happened to her parents, but Biraben is intuitive enough to realize that, from Cristina’s point of view, the first question will be this:  Why must her life be destroyed and rebuilt so that, as the judge says, “Justice can be served’?  The film centers throughout on this young girl, and although everyone has an opinion and a story to tell her, in the end she must face that she will never know the complete truth about everything.

We see Cristina grow up fast in the film, and swayed both by the facts (or lack of them) and the history of her country as well as the new family who have, with the judge’s help, ‘acquisitioned’ her, then who charm her as they tell her about the mother she was taken from. It is a unique twist on the ‘coming-of-age’ drama using politics and issues of trust push her into adulthood rather than the typical scenarios of broken

hearts and school popularity.

There are many good performances here, such as Lombardo, Silvia Bayle and Osvaldo Campos who play the alleged parents and Noemi Frenkel as the ever-watchful psychologist. However, my favorite performance in the film is Angelica (Mercedes Funes) as the angry, rebellious student who is immediately expelled at the beginning of the film, only to appear later as the only person Cristina/Sofia can confide in completely.

7/10

The Video

The video quality is fair. The colors are not as vibrant as they could be, but most of the settings are dull tans and grays and even Nana’s house is described as being ‘dark’.

8/10

The Audio

The Audio is excellent, although everything was in Spanish and I had to read the subtitles, which were also extremely easy to read.

8/10

Packaging and Bonus Features

The packaging is a typical Amaray box. The cover pictures give away nothing of the film. The only extras was a trailer to the film, and previews of many others from Koch Lorber films.

3/10

Overall, I enjoyed the film. I learned a little about the dark part of Argentina’s history, and Lombardo’s excellent performance gave us insight into the struggle a teenager must face when their life is turned upside down. 

Overall (Not an Average) 7/10

The Review

The Movie 7/10

The Video 8/10

The Audio 8/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 3/10

Overall (Not an Average) 7/10

-Fred Grimm