I've been looking forward to this film for a long time, and it doesn't disappoint at all. It's the kind of movie where the performances carry all the weight. Ricardo Darin as always was superb, but also Alejandra Flechner shines as the prosecutor's wife.

While the film has the familiar structure of a trial movie, everything is executed flawlessly.

Merits aside, the whole technical section, from minute zero, is absolutely surprising, the budget is noticeable. I recommend watching it on the big screen, it is unmissable to see the audience's reaction throughout the film. It'll probably be on of the five nominees at the Oscar´s for best international film.

This is such a necessary movie because we live in a time where it seems that negationist, fascist and authoritarian speeches are in fashion. You may think that the beginning starts slow, but you must keep watching if you want to discover what's truly beautiful about Santiago Mitre's tale.

You'll quickly realise what a Tour de Force Argentina 1985 is. Everything works out in a sense that you can find scenes in the picture that are funny, but not imprudent to what the picture is trying to show, scenes that are horrendous but are treated respectfully towards the victims and their families. You'll laugh, you'll cry, but mostly you'll feel anxious and powerless. That's the idea. The idea of being uncomfortable about the stories of the victims of our last civic-military-ecclessiastical-business (& we also don't forget: financed by the United States) dictatorship. Their stories must be heard, that's all we can give them.

The movie starts pretty slow, but from the beginning on you can connect with the characters. The first half hour or so has A LOT of funny little moments, maybe even one or two to many, considering the tone and themes of the movie, but it still works somehow, especially because the actors do a very good job(Important sidenote: I watched it in the original language with subtitles).

The movie lacks a bit of structure though, and the first half feels a bit long and stretched in some parts, it doesn't really feel like we are getting somewhere anytime soon. But it picks up in the second half! What still lacks is real tension. BUT there are a lot of very powerful moments near the end, spectacularly delivered by the cast.

You should also not expect thorough explanations of argentinian history or the court case itself, the movie is about people fighting for justice and shows there struggles and emotions.

So if you want to see an emotional, yet funny, movie with some real heart, and you bring some patience with you, I can really recommend it!