Elcida Villagra

It is 1982. Nélida (68) lives with her grandson Ernesto (17) in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. Nélida is finishing setting the table for lunch when Ernesto comes home from the street. The silence is impossible to break and hangs over the house. Ernesto's anguished expression is evident, and his grandmother tries to calm him with a gesture and a few words... even though her gaze reflects only helplessness and concern. The next day, he must report for military service: the Falklands War has begun.

In 1976, a coup d'etat by the Armed Forces replaced the argentine constitutional Government and policies of terror that trampled on human rights were implemented. In a few years, the hidden and silent violence of these policies spiraled and 30,000 citizens of different ages and social conditions were murdered. They were wrongly called the disappeared and, among them, there were young children or unborn young who were delivered in prisons of the military dictatorship and whose kidnappers abducted and registered as their own children. This movie tells the story of Estela Barnes Carlotto, a human rights activist in Argentina, chairwoman of the Association of Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who stopped being a housewife to get involved in public affairs after the kidnap of her daughter, Laura Estela Carlotto in 1977. The film is about the way her life was transformed.

Right from its original idea, ¨The Clues - Las Pistas - Lanhoyij - Nmitaxanaxac¨ surprises you. How come no one had ever thought of including the different cultures that inhabit Argentina to shape up a story about betrayal, rescues, double agents, and varied, imprecise intrigues? That’s the game suggested by Sebastian Lingiardi’s triple-named (from its wichi and Toba translations) first film, in which a series of apparently harmless characters weave a net of imprecise connections and goals, a plot of unknown limits that turns paranoia into a concrete reality.