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Winner Best Foreign Film at the 1986 Oscars, this harrowing tale of political awakening works more so on an emotional level than an intellectual one. This does not mean that the film is absent of ideas, because it is filled with Argentinean history and the political strife that enveloped the nation in the 1980s when the government was rounding up dissidents, who were often never seen from again.

Alicia (Norma Aleandro, SON OF THE BRIDE) is a high school history teacher. Her husband Roberto (Hector Alterio, SON OF THE BRIDE) is a rich businessman, who has dealings with the country’s elite as well as the government. Alicia knows little about the rallies in the streets of her city where poor mothers seek information about their missing children. She only knows what has been written down in books. Alicia is a great mother to her adopted daughter Gaby (Analia Castro), who just turned five.

However, Alicia’s world is forever changed when she meets up with an old high school friend named Ana (Chunchuna Villafane), who has been living out of the country for years. What Ana hasn’t told anyone before is why she left Argentina. Previously she had been dating a leftist and when he disappeared, the government kidnapped and tortured Ana. When she was finally let go, she fled the country. Now Alicia begins to wonder if her Gaby may be a child stolen from one of the missing leftists.

The premise sets up many deep moral quandaries. Should Alicia find out who Gaby’s real parents are? Are they dead or alive? What did her husband really know about the adoption? If she finds Gaby’s relatives what happens next? How does Gaby’s true identity affect Alicia’s love for her?

Aleandro’s performance is a key to the film’s power. Many of the most touching moments are without dialogue and we must infer what her character is thinking. Her expressive performance is natural and at times heartbreaking. I was also impressed with how the filmmakers physically transformed her over the course of the story. At first, she appears as the archetypical prim and proper school teacher, but as she starts to become more enlightened to what is really going on in the world around her, she takes on a bolder way of not just carrying herself, but in her overall appearance. She is finally releasing herself from the boxed off world she has been living in.

The Oscar nominated screenplay from director Luis Puenzo and Aida Bortnik is marvelous in how it mixes political issues with family drama and drives the story forward as if it were a thriller. They do an excellent job of revealing backstory throughout the film that is presented at the perfect moments, creating more tension and doubt. The supporting cast is used in a way to flesh out elements of the main characters — Alicia and Roberto — as well as adding depth to the world, which feels lived in.

Alicia’s journey is both intellectual and emotional. Political change often comes when people, who didn’t care or were at least apathetic, start caring. The answers she seeks could ruin her life, but she must find the strength to ask them or she wouldn’t be able to live with herself. A new relationship between Alicia and another woman toward the end touches on the emotional minefield in which she was traveled. The question she asks the woman while they are on the train may be the most difficult question of her life. The other woman’s response is telling of the complexity of the issue as well as this amazing film.