San Clemente del Tuyú, 300 km from Buenos Aires in the Atlantic coast of Argentina is a summer beach resort. As the movie opens we see seven year old Cecilia (Ceci) strolling along a deserted beach, trying unsuccessfully to roller skate on the sand. It is winter, skies are clouded, cold is intense and rain frequent. Ceci is living in precarious conditions with her mother Lucía in a one room beach cabin not designed for winter occupancy and we learn that they are hiding from the military regime, with Ceci's father disappeared and probably the entire family in the military's hit list.
With Lucía's wary approval, Ceci attends the local elementary school. She is is placed in second grade and is well received by the other children. Ceci is a bright kid and excels in her schoolwork, supported by Señora Rosita, a stern but supportive teacher. One day, military personnel visit the school and call for participation of the children in a contest where they will submit an essay on the Fatherland and its defenders, the military. Ceci's teacher has high hopes in her chances and Ceci has a hard time conciliating the prize with her father's fate.
This film rests on two pillars. On is an exceptionally good script by director Paula Markovitch, with an uncannily accurate insight on the mind of a seven year old. The other is the way Paula Galinelli Hertzog brings Ceci to life. She hits all the right notes and shows emotions in subtle nonverbal ways (this was her first credit as an actress). Excellent work by the other members of the cast. Markovitch tells the tale in a deliberate, way, and some scenes are perhaps too extended. Cinematography by Wojciech Staron does justice to the austere interiors and melancholic landscapes. Coincidentally, another movie on the children of militants was released the same year (Benjamín Ávila's Clandestine Childhood) based, as this one, in the directors' childhood experiences but the view the subject is different.
