The Crimes That Bind

Alicia's son is on trial for killing his former girlfriend, and although she knows he is guilty she tries to save him. Her ex-husband wants to stay out of it. The mother is prepared to do whatever it takes to clear her son, and another family pays the price. Sebastian Schindel directed. Cecilia Roth plays Alicia, Benjamin Amadeo her son. The subject is not justice but motherhood: the protective instinct crossing a moral line and that being treated as normal. It is not a courtroom film; what it shows is the negotiating, the arranging of witnesses and the movement of money outside the hearing. By bringing the dead woman's family on screen, the story keeps moving between the two sides and gives the viewer no ease. Cecilia Roth's performance carries it; the character is not likeable and the film does not try to forgive her. It went out on Netflix and was seen well beyond Argentina. Who it is for: viewers who like moral drama inside families and Latin American thrillers. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for justice; the film does not deliver it.