In the "dirty war" waged by the military junta against the citizens of Argentina between 1976 and 1983, an estimated 30,000 young men and women were kidnapped, tortured and murdered by government death squads. The junta wanted to make them disappear but did not count on the one factor that would turn their very absence into a presence: they all had mothers who loved them. Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo documents the movement that began with a few "mad women" who, driven by their anguish, braved intimidation and even torture to stage weekly protests in front of the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires. The film, directed by San Francisco-based filmmakers Susana Muñoz and Lourdes Portillo, takes its tone from the four mothers whose extraordinary presence dominates the screen: it is intelligent, informed, and heartbreaking beyond the point of tears. It is also a moving lesson in the nature of politics, born of love: although today the movement has touched thousands who share their demand that the murderers be brought to justice, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo will not be satisfied until their children are brought back-alive.