Based on a play by Ariel Dorfman, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN has been directed by Roman Polanski in 1994.
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A democratic country in South America, some 20 years after a fascist dictatorship. Sigourney Weaver and Stuart Wilson are living in a small house alone near the sea. They are ancient students who fought the dictatorial regime. Stuart Wilson, a lawyer now, has just been nominated by the new President as Head of a Commission in charge of the missing persons after the fall of the right wing regime.
One stormy night, he is brought home by a neighbour, Ben Kingsley, who helped him as his tire went flat. But Sigourney Weaver recognizes Kingsley as the doctor who raped her several times, while blindfolded, when she was held by the secret police of the dictatorship. This doctor had the habit to listen to a recording of Franz Schubert's THE DEATH AND THE MAIDEN while molesting her. Her husband, at first reluctant, agrees to defend Ben Kingsley in an intimate trial which will last the whole night. Is Kingsley an ancient criminal or an innocent man ?
A psychological play with three characters.
The review of this Movie prepared by Daniel Staebler
