“María Soledad, the end of silence”, by Lorena Muñoz (Netflix), collects new testimonies about one of the most emblematic criminal cases that occurred in the early 90s, and covered up by those in power.
With echoes that sound loud in these times, the history of Maria Soledad Morales reappears on the screen. First, back in September 1990, Catamarca television broke news, cautious, reticent. A girl had been murdered. When her companions began to demand justice with increasing “marches of silence,” and suspicion was affirmed about the son of a national deputy and a provincial deputy, Buenos Aires television also went there, with Telenoche at the helm. And there it remained, showing how the governor of the province covered up the suspect, the national government intervened in the province, and new elections displaced the cover-up leader.
But the crime remained unpunished. That’s when Hector Olivera He made one of his best films, “The María Soledad case”strong claim with a great cast and the voice of Mercedes Sosa singing “Silence can”. As an irony, the first judges of the case claimed silence when the cameras, which were broadcasting live, caught them in a complicit gesture that the entire country saw. Because the entire country was mobilized.
The judges immediately prohibited the work of radio and television stations. But they ended up out of the case. Back to square one, the trial began again, with television, other judges, and some justice. By then, seven years had already passed since that crime.
Now all that, and the resolution of the case, reappears in a new, very solid documentary, “María Soledad, the end of silence”. The archival material is enormous, everyone is there, the police chiefs, the local journalists, the parents of the murderer, very offended with their accusers, the marches of 30,000 people and the government march of only 7,000 with the phrase “They want to divide the Catamarca family”and the most revealing confrontations of the second trial, evidencing, for example, the arrogance of a friend of power and the fear of a “tight” witness who prefers to lie rather than go through “the little room” again.
Added to this are the current memories of the investigating prosecutor, Dr. Gustavo Tarantoand the nun Marta Pelloni, “hero without cape”as one of her students defines it, and, above all, the memories of those girls who were barely 17 years old at the time and for the first march are added Pelloni He asked them each to bring their parents’ authorization. Old times, dramas that are repeated, evidence that becomes more clear, resistance that grows.
Today the murderer was released, married, and was left alone, repudiated by his wife under the accusation of gender violence. Same thing, a necessary accomplice. Others, whose names are known, never went to trial. “I didn’t want to talk to the murderers because I don’t want to give them a voice when María Soledad doesn’t have one.”said the director of this documentary.
She is Lorena Muñozthat of “I don’t know what your eyes have done to me.” (next to Sergio Wolf), “The next past” and the biopics of Gilda and Rodrigowho now has another case of femicide in production, which occurred long ago in the town of his Spanish great-grandparents.
“María Soledad, the end of silence” (Argentina, 2024): Dir.: Lorena Muñoz; documentary. Netflix.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
