The Official Story - Plot

Plot

The film looks upon a married couple torn apart by the campaign of killings and torture that sent thousands of accused political leftists to unmarked graves in the mid 1970s during the period known as the Dirty War. It begins five years after Alicia (Norma Aleandro), a History high school teacher and, Roberto (Héctor Alterio), a wealthy high end consultant and stock market buyer with good relation to the military junta, had adopted a baby girl named Gaby (Analia Castro).

Alicia starts wondering about the real parents of Gaby, a topic her husband has told her to forget as it was a condition of the adoption. Yet, he knows the story of his daughter's adoption. While hard to believe, Alicia, as other members of the Argentine middle class, is not aware of how much killing and suffering has gone on in the country, until her students begin to complain that the "government approved" History books given to them were written by the regime's "assassins".

After Ana (Chunchuna Villafañe), Alicia's long time friend, returns from her exile in Europe, Alicia begins to do some serious political and personal research on her own. Ana had been tortured by ultra-right paramilitary forces loyal to the brutal Argentine regime for having lived with a so-called subversive man.

Alicia learns the identity of Gaby's grandmother, Sara (Chela Ruiz), who reveals the identity of the girl's disappeared parents. She finds out that her husband played a major role in the regime's repression and participated in intensive dealings with foreign business representatives. At a family dinner, Roberto has an intense political argument with his anarchist father and brother, where he uses the political point of view of the ruling conservative military elite, and his father and brother argue from the side of social justice.

The film suggests that Sara may not actually be Gaby's real grandmother, and briefly explores the fact that Gaby's true family may never be known. This juxtaposition of fact and emotion are meant to evoke the mood of hope and hopelessness in reaction to a war environment.

The film ends with a confrontation between Alicia and her husband. He wants her to forget about the past and look to the future. Upon his arrival, Roberto is told that Gaby is not home. In response to his inquiry, Alicia responds: "how does it feel not knowing where your child is?". Although she tells him that Gaby is at his mother's house, he becomes enraged and assaults her, but is interrupted by the telephone ringing. He answers it, and starts talking to Gaby. Alicia gets her purse to leave, indicating that she no longer can live with him.

The audience is left to wonder if Alicia will return Gaby to her real family or leave her with Roberto. However, the final shot of the film shows Gaby sitting in a wicker rocking chair at her adopted grandparents' house, singing a nursery rhyme. This clearly parallels the story Alicia tells earlier in the story about sitting in a rocking chair at her grandmother's house, waiting for her parents, not knowing that they had died in a car accident.