A Mão na Armadilha

There was a time when a deformed or "loony" relative was kept locked up in the house never to be spoken of except behind the back and the once wealthy Lavignes keep one on the top floor of a mansion that's seen better days. Young Laura, home from boarding school, is determined to finally get a glimpse of the half-brother who's been confined upstairs for twenty years but when she does, she discovers a completely different relative under lock and key and, as her aunt tells her, "it's bad enough you went snooping around but now you've gone and put your hand in the trap"...

Family honor and the dark secrets of a provincial Argentinian town propel this perverse variation on JANE EYRE with a heroine not unlike Jean Seberg in BONJOUR TRISTESTE and although it's not exactly horror, the downbeat ending comes close enough as "those who can't learn from the past are condemned to repeat it". Director Nilsson was nominated for a Palme d'Or for his gloomy, black & white adaptation of wife Beatriz Guido's novel.