Spanish Film Festival 2023: A Singular Crime

This is set in 1980 (as the film tells us several times because John Lennon has just been shot) in Rosario, Argentina. It’s during the military dictatorship, and the military has infiltrated the police force. Under the judicial system in Argentina, the judge and his clerks investigate crimes directly. In this case, which teeters on the edge of corruption, the clerks, Rivas and Torres- both with PhDs in law – find the police/military too quick to resort to torture in investigating the disappearance of a wealthy Syrian playboy-businessman. I must confess to becoming totally confused between the two law clerks, both of whom had wimpy 1980s style moustaches. The plot was of less interest to me than the political situation of uneasiness. The title in English is ‘A Singular Crime’ but the original Spanish title ‘Un Crimen Argentino’ is more appropriate because although crime is pretty much the same everywhere, the context is not.