Leopoldo Torre Nilsson is best known for his films of the late 1950s and '60s, which were critical of the Argentine upper bourgeoisie. Hand in the Trap (from a phrase used by St. Augustine to suggest that one who puts his hand in a trap will carry that trap forever) was written by Torre Nilsson and his wife, Beatriz Guido. This moody, gothic tale focuses on two sisters and one of their daughters, Laura. She is home for her annual visit, which is a source of anxiety for the boarding school nuns, worried about the effects of idle hands in a small town. And indeed, once away from their monitoring influence, Laura's imagination takes free rein, and in her mother's and aunt's dark, baroque house she uncovers a melodrama of deceptive appearances and suppressed sexuality. The upper-class sisters spend their time sewing trousseaus for others and caring for the family's "shame," an illegitimate son of Laura's late father, shut away in an upper-floor room for the last twenty years. They too are shut in, their doors closed against knowledge of a changing outside world, intent on maintaining a facade of their former social prominence. Laura resists their immobility, somberly exploring the town, her sexuality, and the family's mystery. But, as the film's closed in, claustrophobic framing and repeated use of close-ups suggest, one can be trapped in many ways-within one's home, by social conventions and gender roles, by love and lovelessness. Kathy Geritz