Today’s Prayer Focus

The Secret in Their Eyes

also known as “El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” “Dans ses yeux,” “Hemmeligheten i deres øyne,” “Katseeseen kätketty,” “O Segredo de Seus Olhos”
MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA) for a rape scene, violent images, some graphic nudity and language.
Moral Rating: not reviewed
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Crime Mystery Thriller Romance Foreign Drama
Length: 2 hr. 7 min.
Year of Release: 2009
USA Release: November 4, 2009 (film festival)
April 16, 2010 (theatrical)
DVD: September 21, 2010
Copyright, Sony Pictures Classicsclick photos to ENLARGE Copyright, Sony Pictures Classics Copyright, Sony Pictures Classics Copyright, Sony Pictures Classics Copyright, Sony Pictures Classics Copyright, Sony Pictures Classics Copyright, Sony Pictures Classics Copyright, Sony Pictures Classics Copyright, Sony Pictures Classics Copyright, Sony Pictures Classics
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Featuring Ricardo Darín (Benjamín Esposito), Soledad Villamil (Irene Menéndez Hastings), Pablo Rago (Ricardo Morales), Javier Godino (Isidoro Gómez), Guillermo Francella (Pablo Sandoval), José Luis Gioia (Inspector Báez), Carla Quevedo (Liliana Coloto), Bárbara Palladino (Chica piropo), Rudy Romano (Ordóñez), Mario Alarcón (Juez Fortuna Lacalle), Alejandro Abelenda (Pinche Mariano), See all »
Director Juan José Campanella
Producer 100 Bares (Argentina), Canal+ España (Spain), Haddock Films, Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA), Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA), Televisión Española (TVE), Televisión Federal (Telefe), Tornasol Films, Mariela Besuievski, Muriel Cabeza, Juan José Campanella, Gerardo Herrero, Guillermo Imsteyf, Axel Kuschevatzky, Federico Posternak, Vanessa Ragone
Distributor

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “A man wants to solve a murder committed 30 years ago.

Benjamin Esposito has spent his entire working life as a criminal court employee. Recently retired and with time on his hands, he decides to write a novel. He does not decide to make up a story. There is no need to. He can draw on his own past as a civil servant for a true, moving and tragic story in which he was once very directly involved. In 1974, his court was assigned an investigation into the rape and murder of a beautiful young woman.

At the scene of the crime, Esposito sees the result of the young woman’s rape and murder first hand. He meets Ricardo Morales, who had married the girl a short time before and worshipped her body and soul. Moved by Ricardo’s grief, Esposito tries to help him find the culprit despite having to contend with the apathy and ineptitude of the police and legal system. He knows that for help he can count on Sandoval, an underling at the office yet a close friend, who occasionally seeks release from the routine of his existence by drinking himself unconscious. He can also turn to Irene, his immediate superior and secretary of the court, with whom he is secretly deeply in love, although there is no hope that she will ever love him.

The search for the murderer is anything but simple. No clues remain at the scene of the crime and Esposito must rely on guesswork and his own instincts to make any progress. Furthermore, Argentina in 1974 is not a peaceful place. It is a perfect backdrop for the violence, hate, revenge and death that rule people’s lives and fates.

To this ever more hostile and dark setting, Esposito’s investigation takes him deep into a world of terrible violence. No longer an observer, he becomes an unwilling central character in a drama in which he is exposed to ever-greater danger.

But it is not only the young Esposito of 1974 who is swept along by the storm of events, for that storm also envelops the present-day Esposito, the old would-be writer, and sets him adrift. By deciding to revive and relive his memories, he has set in motion the wheels of the terrible mechanism of memory. And those memories are neither innocent, neutral nor aseptic. Esposito writes, and as he does so, relives a past that rises up before his eyes and awakens all his demons: particularly those involving his past decisions, uncertainties and irreparable mistakes.”

American remake of this film: “The Secret in Their Eyes” (2015) starring Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, and Chiwetel Ejiofor

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