El secreto de sus ojos

El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes), Juan José Campanella, Argentine 2009.

Benjamín Espósito , a retired judiciary employee, confesses to judge Irene Menéndez Hastings his will to write a book about an unresolved case on which they worked together in the past. At that time young, talented and passionate decided to take the responsibility to secretly investigate on a rape and brutal homicide of a young woman, and convinced the judge to reopen the case on the grounds that his intuition might have identified the right suspect. However corruption in the law department would not allow then to have justice. Now, after 25 years Espósito is interested in knowing what happened to all the people involved in those events.

Slow paced at the beginning, the film introduces the story like a memory from the past returning in one's mind, never forgotten because influencing, and takes its time to introduce the main characters, their connections and their feelings, The drama of a true love stolen with violence, of a difficult relationship and attraction, and of a true friendship seem to steal the stage from the crime which instead erodes insidiously their foundation as time goes by, and pollutes people's existence.

'El secreto de sus ojos' won the Oscar for best foreign language film.
It is surely remarkable for the mystery and unpredictability of its story. However rape and homicide of a young beautiful woman represent a subject addressed so many times by the film industry that one may reasonably ask whether this is an ideological concept that must ever be addressed to gain attention by the film industry itself and why for instance tell the story of one of the many unfortunate young men killed for sex or by poverty should not equally upset the audience or move with compassion a sensitive investigator. Is the film industry doing right its job? Is young women's life priceless and young men's life worthless?