Hugo Arana Movies

Gaston Biraben's political thriller Cautiva (Captive) concerns itself with what happened to the children of the people killed after the 1970s military coup. Cristina Quadri (Barbara Lombardo) is the model of a perfect student. Smart and affluent, her life is in perfect order until, one day, she is called from her class and made to appear in front of a judge. The judge informs her that her real parents were killed in the '70s. Cristina is forced to go live with her grandmother Elisa (Susana Campos), who has spent the past 20 years attempting to locate Cristina (whose birth name was Sofia). Although, at first, she is hurt, bitter, and confused, Cristina/Sofia eventually grows to care for Elisa and begins to research the fate of her parents. Captive was an award winner at the 2003 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Adolfo Aristarain and Alberto Lecchi wrote this South American western in which sheep-herders battle a ruthless landowner. ~ Nicole Gagne, Rovi

Desperate to make some sort of money during a period when the Argentine national economy is very shaky indeed, a bank's managers have arranged for it to file for bankruptcy just after they neatly clean out its accounts. However, they weren't counting on the parallel efforts by a group of poorly paid low-level employees. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This is an emotionally gripping, fictional look at a couple torn apart by the infamous Argentine campaign of killings and torture that sent thousands of accused terrorists to unmarked graves in the mid-and late-'70s. Alicia (Norma Aleandro) and Roberto (Hector Alterio) adopted a little girl (Analia Castro) during this period of governmental terror in Argentina. Alicia has always wondered about the parents of their little girl, a topic her husband has forced her into forgetting as a condition of the adoption -- he alone knows the full story. Thanks to censorship, Alicia -- like others -- is not fully aware of how much killing has gone on until her students at school start complaining that their textbook histories were written by murderers. Add to this a long conversation with a friend who had been in exile after she was tortured by the government, and Alicia starts to do some serious political and personal research on her own. The results reveal the identity of the little girl's dead parents and reveal that Alicia's husband has had a nasty hand in the government repression and dirty dealings with foreign businesses. She also learns the identity of the girl's grandmother. Her next decision will determine what to do with this information. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The Island, a turgid action drama directed by Michael Ritchie, revolves around the adventures of Maynard (Michael Caine), a newspaper reporter who tries to solve the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. Maynard, and his son crash-land on a remote island ruled by a gang of pirates who kill anyone who intrudes there. From beginning to end, The Island is slow, uninvolving and very bloody. The terrible script by Peter Benchley, who also wrote Jaws, is jagged and the dialogue is cliched. The film was an economic disaster and is only of interest because of a good score by Ennio Morricone. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi