Zanahoria (2014) Reviews

• Suspenseful movie

  hof-42016-08-13

  The title is a bit of a giveaway, since "zanahoria" (carrot) has the secondary meaning of "gullible, easy to fool" on both shores of the River Plate. The place is Montevideo, and this is the historical background. Uruguay was under a military dictatorship since 1973 to 1984 that shared the murderous traits of the contemporary military regime in Argentina. Both regimes colluded and collaborated in the brutal repression (including the widespread use of torture) of every progressive element. Many Uruguayans were disappeared and assassinated, some of them in Argentina. Democracy returned to Uruguay in 1984 but in charge of the discredited traditional political parties, under military control and with amnesty for all crimes committed by the dictatorship. In 2004 a new party won that promised to investigate human rights abuses. The time is 2004, shortly before the election. Walter and Jorge are two journalists working for a Montevideo weekly that are offered information about the murders of the military, location of corpses included, and most of the movie is about their pursuit of various leads. This part of the movie is taut, suspenseful, and will keep you on the edge of your seat. I did not like the ending; the resolution is, to say the least, disappointing, although it is based on a real story. One secondary effect of the movie (probably unintended) is to minimize the military's menace before and during the 2004 election; in fact, there were strong reasons to believe at the time that they would take action (false flag attacks included) to nullify the results if they went, as they did, against their wishes. As to the movie itself; production values are excellent throughout, the pacing is just right and acting is first rate. In spite of my reservations about the script, I enjoyed watching it.