Captive (Cautiva) (2003)

71% of critics liked it
(14 reviews)
78% of users liked it
(613 ratings)

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… More 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

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 55 min.
Directed By: Gaston Biraben
Written By: Gaston Biraben
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Dec 8, 2006 Limited
On DVD: Sep 11, 2007
Studio: Laemmle/Zeller Films

Critic Reviews

Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Part detective story, part coming of political age saga, and all teenage identity crisis.
Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times
If Biraben had devoted more energy to the human contours of his story, its metaphorical implications would have sorted themselves out.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
The Argentine thriller Cautiva features a solid performance by 23-year-old Barbara Lombardo that goes a long way in making up for the telenovela script.
Jan Stuart, Newsday
The debut feature of Gastón Biraben, Cautiva is most potent in its first hour, as it bears witness to the disorientation and distrust experienced by a young girl whose life is suddenly turned upside down.
Jordan Harper, Village Voice
This intriguing debut by Argentinean writer-director Gaston Biraben sets up a lot of tough choices before finally taking the easy way out.
A.O. Scott, New York Times
This powerful film in the New Directors/New Films Series about a girl's alienation is also an attempt to grapple with the horrors of Argentina's recent history.
Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews
An almost Kafkaesque story of the daughter of two "disappeared" parents in Argentina discovering her true identity. Similar to "The Official Story" but with a key difference. The daughter is a teenager rather than a 5 year old and hence more vulnerable to
Bob Strauss, Los Angeles Daily News
At every step, Cautiva is a noble, thoughtful effort. Too bad it's so often a dull one.
Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly
Neither Biraben's script nor his direction leave room for doubt as to how he feels about the nightmarish past, but he's smart enough to know that even justified outrage sometimes has to be tempered with the complexities of human intentions and realities.
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Another mediocre Argentinean film to ride into town on a wave of inexplicable critical approval.
Rich Cline, Film Threat
Sporadically artful yet stupefyingly dull -- there are some segments that are so beautiful and monotonous that they very nearly hypnotise us...into a coma.
Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
A finely wrought coming-of-age drama that crackles with political tension...
Jonathan W. Hickman, Entertainment Insiders
Cautiva makes us question the things we take for granted.

Read all 13 critic reviews

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Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]In "Cautiva," it is 1994 and Cristina(Barbara Lombardo) has just turned 15. She is a nautrally curious teenager in Argentina, living on the outskirts of Buenos Aires with her parents(Osvaldo Santoro & Silvia Bayle) and attending Catholic school.… More
[font=Century Gothic]In "Cautiva," it is 1994 and Cristina(Barbara Lombardo) has just turned 15. She is a nautrally curious teenager in Argentina, living on the outskirts of Buenos Aires with her parents(Osvaldo Santoro & Silvia Bayle) and attending Catholic school. All of that changes when she is pulled out of school one day and brought to the office of Judge Barrenechea(Hugo Arana) who calmly informs her that everything she has known is a lie and that her real parents were a pair of architecture students who were disappeared by the military junta. And in the process, he introduces Cristina to her real grandmother(Susana Campos). In response, Cristina makes a break for it...[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Cautiva" is a very compelling movie whose only major fault is an inexplicable scene. In normal circumstances, we can presume that adoptive parents may have a stronger bond with their children than their blood relations who gave them up. But in Argentina, where babies were taken from their parents during the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983, the right thing to do is to reunite them with their original families.(Contrary to what a schoolmate of Cristina's thinks, something is being done to right the old wrongs.) In the end, Cristina is not only questioning her identity but also the identity and history of her country which up to this point she had been kept largely ignorant of. See, the personal is the political. [/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]By the way, are their any human rights abuses that Henry Kissinger has not had a connection with?[/font]