Ellos Volvieron

Plot synopsis:
Ellos Volvieron (They Returned) starts with three children, Lucio (Lauro Veron), Lionel (Juan Ignacio Molina) and Sabrina (Valentina Sartorelli), aged about 11 years of age playing near a vast abandoned hospital in the woods in Argentina. As it gets dark, the children do not return home, and using a series of cut-aways, it appears that they remain missing for at least a full 24 hours. Then the three children are seen naked, walking zombie-like through the fields towards their homes.The parents rush out to meet their missing children who stand lifeless and seemingly unaware of their nudity as the parents hug them. Blood begins to trickle down the inside of Lucios thigh.Next, in their class, the intense middle-aged teacher, Sergio (Julio Mendez), tells the children's classmates that they must all pull together to help the kids overcome this terrible tragedy. The three returned children are brought into the class by the headmistress, and throughout almost the entire movie, they act as though oblivious to their surroundings, something that Isabel the school counsellor (Romina Pinto) attributes to selective mutism as a result of their trauma.The other parents in this small town are revealed to be overcome by fear. This is shown by them all arriving at school to collect their children, and by increasing paranoia, suspicions and hostility towards each other throughout the movie. Although for some strange reason, even on their first day back to school, the three kidnapped kids are allowed to walk to school on their own...The other children are bewildered by what has happened, but supportive towards the returned.The school counsellor is introduced as she tries to draw the three victims out of their silence, and an out-of-town Jewish federal inspector Cohen (Jorge Booth) arrives to investigate the case. As he arrives, the towns seniors; Sophia the judge (Edmee Aran), Maria the head mistress (Rosana Rossotti), mayor Rostagno (German de Goycoechea), school counsellor, and others, are together, and it appears as though there are mild tensions between them. The headmistress implores the mayor for overdue money to repair the schools dilapidated basketball hoop. The female judge, is particularly assertive and seems to have strong ideas about who is NOT guilty.The inspector starts interviewing people and it is revealed that most of the towns people are descended from Nazis, although they are all in denial about their past. The hospital is built on land formerly owned by the Himmels, and forcibly taken from them by the government. A last member of the Himmel family (Manfred Hesper), described as "the old lunatic", lives in a shack by the vast decaying hospital.Lucios mother Paola (Camila Cruz) lives with her father (José Veron) and son. She reveals to the inspector that she is considered the town's "easy slut" and that she allowed a local called Juan (Oscar Mira) to court her in the hope that he would provide for her son. When Juan got religion, she discarded him. Throughout the movie, in a series of flashbacks, she is seen with a child in a blanket, standing in a stream, presumably about to drown the baby.Lucio and Lionel are seen in the showers after a soccer game, and as the boys turn, the reaction of the other boys to their genitalia makes it clear that something is terribly wrong. A subsequent conversation between the inspector and the local police talks about the nature of their injuries, and reveals possible teeth marks.Lionel's family takes the unresponsive boy with their other kids, to the river for a day out. Nearby, one of the town children is fishing with his father. Lionel sits simply staring at the boy. The boy senses he is being watched, and despite his father's instructions to ignore Lionel, cannot but help keep turning to look at the boy, seemingly mesmerised by him.Sabrina has a birthday party, during which she remains unresponsive, and in an unsympathetic comment, one of the parents makes it clear that the girl cannot even dress herself.Lucio's mother asks to talk to the school counsellor, and it is clear that they have some history together.The three abductees are seen walking through sunny fields towards the abandoned hospital and the town children are surrounding them. There is a long scene in a room with a locked door, during which a young boy is goaded into putting his penis through a small hole in the door on the promise that he will be fellated, although no-one can tell him by whom. The boy finally agrees, and just as he puts his penis through the door, crazy Mister Himmel arrives and chases the kids off. They run away laughing, except for the three who remain on a balcony. Himmel approaches menacingly, and even strikes Lucio on the arm with a log, The kids just stare at him impassively. It is subsequently revealed that Himmel has fallen from the balcony and his death recorded and uploaded to the internet. The suggestion is made that even a 5 year old could have pushed him.One of the younger children is discovered a few days later to have drawn a picture of the man's death, before the death was publicly known. When the counsellor asks him about it, he reveals that he saw it on the internet. She questions him about a second picture he has drawn depicting a woman hanging. He reveals that the woman is the counsellor herself. She asks "Who killed me?" "You" the young boy answers.The counsellor has a conversation with Sergio, the school teacher, and he starts to talk about ancient evil in the town. She presumably reports him to the inspector and the police go to his one-room house and search it, looking in the freezer for the boys' missing parts later revealed to be their entire genitalia. There is an allusion that the school teacher fled his previous job because of something bad that happened. The teacher expands upon his belief that something is evil and out of balance in the town that needs rebalancing. The inspector becomes increasingly annoyed at the man's claims.The local padre is interviewed, and he also talks about the evil in the town. The inspector asks the padre if he has trouble with celibacy (hinting that the padre may have something to do with the sexual crime), and the formerly pleasant padre shoots back with a nasty comment about the inspector's crippled leg.Various shots show the town children watching the death video on the internet, playing sadistic games, and torturing animals. However, there is an air of innocence, as though none of the children are aware that their behaviour is bad.The inspector talks to Lucio's mother again, and she reveals that her father was an out of towner tasked with building the hospital on the confiscated land. When the hospital project went wrong, he had his equipment confiscated and was imprisoned by the townspeople led by the judge.Lucio's mother visits the counsellor, and it is clear that they were once friends. They have a conversation about an unspecified event in the past that affects Lucio, and the counsellor makes it clear that she has kept the secret. The mother reveals that Lucio reminds her of a past that she is trying to forget.All of the kids return to the hospital and go crazy, smashing the place up, cutting each other, torturing a wild dog, and generally going wild. But it is all done with anair of trance-like innocence. As they calm down, Sabrina leads them to an outside window that opens onto a basement room. She looks through, and inside are the naked and motionless bodies of herself and the two boys, both of whom are still unmutilated at that point.That evening, the town mayor is driving home. It is dark, and the streets are deserted. He sees Lucio sitting alone by a kids park. He approaches concerned, but then Lucio speaks for the first time. "You took their lives away. You didnt just take bricks away, you took their lives away." The mayor gets angry and defensive, and it is revealed that he took bricks from the hospital, which somehow belonged to the Nazis. [This may be metaphorical]He relents and offers the boy his hand and leads him towards his car. Lucio takes his hand, but as they near the car, Lucio pulls free and walks on ahead. The mayor collapses in the road, and Lucio disappears. A moment later, a random car comes down the road and accidentally runs the mayor over.The counsellor has another conversation with the teacher, during which he expounds his increasingly crazy-sounding opinions about the ancient evil that pervades the town.The inspector goes to the town's judge to request records about the purchase and work on the hospital. She is hostile and obstructive, clearly hiding a secret. Nevertheless she grudgingly agrees to provide the requested documents. From this point on, the townspeople are increasingly hostile towards the inspector.
A couple of townspeople are seen having a fight after a car crash, perhaps indicating the towns simmering hostility to everything, and its gradual unravelling.The judge sets up a national press conference, and in spite of her advisor's strong objections, she insists that the three returned children must be by her side.The inspector interviews the school teacher again, revealing that the teacher is a suspect. The teacher expounds further upon his theories.Sabrina's uncle is brought into the police station for stabbing his neighbour but the arresting officer confides to the inspector that it was actually Sabrina who stabbed the man. The man is covering for his niece. Whilst left alone, the uncle opens the crime folder left on the desk, and sees the mutilation done to the two boys. Both are missing their genitals and have many gouges in that area, as though somebody went crazy. The uncle is duly sickened at the sight.At the school, the children exit from the class and wait in the hall for an unknown reason with a normal babble of youthful activity. The headmistress accompanying them, glances out of the window and notices two children outside using the dangerous basketball hoop. She goes outside to warn them off, but as she passes the equipment, it immediately collapses. She comes back in, says something incomprehensible, then collapses, with the back of her skull bashed it. The basketball children come in, and they and all the other children simply wander off, seemingly oblivious to the dying woman on the floor.Julio's mother is bathing him. He is unresponsive, but she tells him how much he matters to her, she gets angry at his unresponsiveness and goes outside to seek consolation from her father. It is revealed in a flashback, that her father had sex with her, and Lucio is the product. When she returns, Julio is missing. She goes to find him and he is sitting naked in the shallow stream behind their house.She has a final flashback where it is revealed that she is seen deciding against drowning the baby - Lucio.The police discover the video of old Himmler dead from his fall, which has been filmed by one of the children and uploaded to the internet.The counsellor confronts the teacher Sergio about his apparent craziness, but the man reveals that he knows all about the town's unsavoury past and Lucio's conception. She is stunned into silence.The inspector visits the padre again, certain that the man is holding back information. The priest reveals that the whole town was disgusted by Lucio's mother. The inspector implies that the priest was moved to the town to avoid trouble elsewhere.The small child who drew the counsellor killing herself, turns up at her house and delivers a rope pre-tied in a noose. She picks it up stunned and clearly still unsettled from her conversation with Sergio.The judge holds a press conference with the three damaged children by her side. She goes on a self-righteous tirade against sex offenders, and midway through gets a nosebleed which rapidly grows to an unstoppable torrent of blood. She collapses to the floor, presumably dying, whilst the three kids wander off, followed by the town children.On the recommendation of Lucio's mother, the inspector goes looking for Juan who lives in an old caravan. The children are already there. One of them is filming everything on his phone as always. In a flashback, Juan is seen murdering Lucio, Sabrina and Lionel one after the other. He strips their bodies, takes the clothes, then leaves the basement, distraught at what he has done.Lucio enters the caravan and Juan tearfully apologises, saying "I didnt want to hurt you." In a flashback, Juan witnesses Lucio's mother and father sleeping together, and Juan says that the boy was "born of evil."
He sees Lucio sitting with his hands cupped in his lap and says "I never touched you there". Lucio says, "I know. You left us. The dogs came. We were just meat". A wild dog is seen gnawing at something.The counsellor is seen hanging herself.The detective races to interview Juan.Lucio shows tenderness to Juan. He says, "You need to resolve this".Juan gets into his minivan with the three children, and starts hurtling along desolate high mountain roads. They pass the inspector going the other way. Lucio tenderly strokes Juans cheeks, then presses the mans knee down, forcing him to push the gas pedal. Juan does not resist. The other two kids move close, almost tender, happy at last. The van flies off the road and tumbles hundreds of feet down the steep mountainside before bursting into flames. Sergio, the school teacher stands on the remote road, inexplicably in the right place at the right time and watches the van burn.The scene changes to show the three children, happy and normal, playing alone on a beach as sun sets.The credits roll.

Tags: murder

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