Roman Polanski has turned Ariel Dorfman’s successful play Death and the Maiden into a gripping psychological thriller. One stormy night, the successful lawyer Gerardo arrives soaking and exhausted at his remote beach house. His car has had a flat tyre but fortunately a passer by has come to his aid. Gerardo’s beautiful wife Paulina greets him in her characteristically cynical way. Fifteen years earlier she had been arrested, raped and tortured by a military junta. She never came to terms with the experience and lives on the verge of hysteria in perpetual fear. Paulina’s past was always a topic the couple avoided in conversation. Until this night. Because when the stranger, Dr Miranda, comes round to bring Gerardo’s flat type, the panic-stricken Paulina recognises his voice: he was the man who raped her all those years ago. When she has herself back under control, she accuses him and ties him to a chair. She forces her husband to be defence attorney for Dr Miranda in a trial to decide whether her rapist will live.
