The Secret in Their Eyes

“A man can change any­thing,” remarks San­doval (Guiller­mo Fran­cel­la) at a cru­cial junc­ture in The Secrets in Their Eyes, ​“his face, his home, his fam­i­ly, his girl­friend, his reli­gion, his god. But there’s one thing he can’t change – he can’t change his passion.”

It’s this unwa­ver­ing pas­sion, along with mem­o­ry, regret and jus­tice, that is cen­tral to Juan José Campanella’s bril­liant film. Based on Eduar­do Sacheri’s nov­el ​‘La Pre­gun­ta De Sus Ojos’, and fea­tur­ing an excel­lent cast led by Ricar­do Darín and Soledad Vil­lamil, this is anoth­er sparkling jew­el in mod­ern Argen­tine cinema’s crown.

Cam­panel­la flits between past and present as retired Fed­er­al Jus­tice Agent Ben­jamín Espos­i­to (Darín) revis­its the ghosts of his past. Bored and unsat­is­fied with how his life has turned out, he decides to write a nov­el about a mur­der case he inves­ti­gat­ed 25 years ear­li­er, which has haunt­ed him ever since.

The flash­backs are set in 1974 – a time of ris­ing vio­lence between rival polit­i­cal fac­tions on the left and right – in the lead-up to Argentina’s blood­i­est dic­ta­tor­ship. Although Cam­panel­la doesn’t focus on the dark demons of Argentina’s his­to­ry, the peri­od remains key to the sto­ry, focussing in on issues of impuni­ty and retribution.

Espos­i­to strug­gles with his nov­el, unsure where to start. ​“Start at the part you remem­ber the most,” sug­gests Irene Hast­ings (Vil­lamil), a long-time col­league. And so, he begins with her. We learn that he has loved her from the moment he met her, but has nev­er had the guts to act upon his feel­ings. We learn that she loved him too, but was wait­ing for him to make the move. Rich with sym­bol­ism (doors open­ing and clos­ing are par­tic­u­lar­ly promi­nent), it’s a sto­ry of words unspo­ken, busi­ness unre­solved, and looks with hid­den mean­ings. Fit­ting­ly, it is a gaze that gives a secret away, and solves a mur­der case.

But the mur­der mys­tery isn’t the only jig­saw puz­zle Espos­i­to is try­ing to com­plete. He’s also scrab­bling to fit togeth­er the miss­ing pieces of his own life. It is a process that grips through­out, but by the time Cam­panel­la brings clo­sure to Esposito’s painful soul-search­ing after 127 min­utes, it has also become frus­trat­ing to watch for an audi­ence for whom the solu­tion appears blind­ing­ly obvious.

The Secret in Their Eyes is one of those films you will find your­self return­ing to again and again. Not only for its engross­ing love sto­ry, dra­ma and occa­sion­al com­ic moments (deriv­ing from dia­logue between Espos­i­to and drunk­ard col­league San­doval), but also for its beau­ti­ful and artis­tic cin­e­matog­ra­phy cour­tesy of vet­er­an DP Félix Monti.