Nominated in the International Feature category for the 95th Academy Awards, the latest from director Santiago Mitre dramatizes the Trial of the Juntas, the heads of the fascistic military government that ruled Argentina from 1976–83. During that time, thousands were “disappeared,” held captive and tortured, making the proceedings to bring justice to the perpetrators on par with the Nuremberg trials.

Ricardo Darín plays the lead prosecutor Julio César Strassera as a man exhausted by work but emboldened by family. Family plays a sizeable role in Argentina, 1985 as many relatives find themselves on opposite sides of the political divide of the highly publicized trial. That is, until the testimonies pour in and those who back the police state realize the cost incurred.

Argentina, 1985 might not win the statue on Oscar night, but for a nearly two-and-a-half-hour courtroom drama, it’s an engaging piece of storytelling with more than a few unsavory parallels to modern-day abuses of power and cruelty. Some histories don’t feel like history at all. Now streaming on Amazon Prime.

The above blurb first appeared in the pages of Boulder Weekly Vol. 30, No. 24, “And the nominees are…“