The Prize

Growing social unrest in Buenos Aires begins to corrode a child's innocence, despite her mother's best efforts to remove them both from the urban heart of the conflict in this sobering drama from writer/director Paula Markovitch. Concerned over the military dictatorship that has seized control of Argentina, a weary Buenos Aires mother (Laura Agorreca) whisks her seven year old daughter Cecilia (Paula Galinelli Hertzog) to the sleepy seaside town of San Clemente del Tuyu. But the turmoil follows the pair when Ceclia enrolls in a new school, where her genial teacher Rosita (Viviana Suraniti) makes a patriotic, Army-sponsored essay a part of the curriculum. Convinced that the new regime is responsible for the disappearance of Cecilia's father, the young girl's mother grows increasingly uneasy when her daughter's prize-winning essay draws some unwanted attention, potentially putting them both in mortal danger.