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In The Official Story, Alicia (Norma Aleandro) lives a comfortable middle class life. She teaches History to high school students and enjoys a family that includes her well-to-do husband Roberto (Hector Alterio) and 5-year old adopted daughter Gaby (Analia Castro). Not used to asking questions, she believes whatever she has read in history books and is confused when one of her students tells her that "history is written by assassins." She sees the demonstrations of the "Mothers of Plaza de Mayo", a group seeking information about missing family members but remains uninvolved. When her friend Ana (Chunchuna Villafane) visits after living in exile for many years, however, she learns, in an intensely emotional scene, that Ana had been imprisoned and tortured by the police trying to locate her husband, a suspected "subversive". Ana tells Alicia that
many others had "disappeared" and that babies had been taken from their
mothers and given to childless friends of the junta. Alicia begins to wonder
if her own child was the daughter of a political victim and questions her
husband but when he is evasive, she suspects that he may be hiding a dark
secret. Although fearful at the prospect of losing Gaby, Alicia is determined
to find out about her daughter's past and begins to search hospital records
and government archives. Ultimately, she must confront her own responsibility
in a climax of shattering force that underscores the tragedy of political
ideologues who would rather destroy family solidarity than risk losing
power.
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