408. Song Without A Name (Canción sin nombre);

 

 

SONG WITHOUT A NAME

Cert 12A

97 mins

BBFC advice: Contains infrequent strong language, distressing scenes, discriminatory language

Can you really steal someone's baby?

Sitting in our nice warm home in wealthy Britain, Song Without Our Name was almost impossible to comprehend.

But this is a true story of a poor illiterate woman, Georgina (Pamela Mendoza), who is persuaded to go to a private clinic to give birth.

Immediately, her baby was taken away and the clinic and its staff simply disappeared. 

Melina León's black and white film is set in Peru at the height of the political crisis of the 1980s when corruption was rife and the gap between rich and poor was stark.

Therefore, the mother, who lives in a shack in the Andes, finds her cries of despair fall on deaf ears among the police and politicians.

Consequently, her desperate search for the child leads her to the headquarters of a major newspaper, where she meets lonely journalist, Pedro (Tommy Párraga), who takes on the investigation. 

Song Without A Name is filmed in documentary-style, initially following Georgina and her husband as they go about their daily life, eking an existence by selling potatoes.

She is preyed upon by the clinicians who feed on her vulnerability by insisting that they will deliver her baby at a cheap rate.

Meanwhile, we also see inside the offices of a newspaper which is highlighting corruption in Peru.

There we find Pedro who is struggling for satisfaction at work and on the outside where he fears admitting that he is gay.

Georgina and Pedro make an unlikely partnership but they set about proving a heinous crime has been committed. 

However, they face a hostile and potentially dangerous response but the question remains, will their efforts see the return of her baby.

I found León's film riveting because I had no idea of Peru's political history nor that babies could be so easily abducted.

My later reading showed how common the crime has been.

León's slow-paced direction suits the material and the choice of low-key leads, expertly executed by Mendoza and Párraga, was an excellent touch.

Reasons to watch: Mind-blowing true story

Reasons to avoid: Its slow pace

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know? In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Peru was famous for its relatively quick, easy adoptions. Thousands of foreign couples flocked to the country and Americans alone adopted more than 720 Peruvian babies in 1991. That changed after a series of scandals in which children were kidnapped from poor families and lawyers and judges were bribed to fake paperwork.

The final word. Melina León: "In Peru, we don’t know what it’s like to live in times that are not troubled but the 1980s were completely out of control. Look at us nowadays, our former president Alan García Pérez (who was the president during the time period of our story) just shot himself in the head because the police were coming to arrest him for corruption."

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