SOURCE: Sterritt, David. Review of Death and the Maiden, by Roman Polanski. Christian Science Monitor 87, no. 43 (27 January 1995): 14.

In the following review, Sterritt offers a generally positive assessment of Death and the Maiden, observing that Polanski's direction is “efficient” rather than “inspired.”

The setting [of Death and the Maiden] is a Latin American country after the fall of a military dictatorship. One main character is a woman who was once kidnaped and tortured by the old government; another is her husband, a lawyer recently named to investigate and denounce such crimes. The third is a stranger who comes to their house by chance, only to be seized and brutally interrogated by the woman, who identifies him as her former tormenter. The movie's fascination comes partly from uncertainty as to whether the stranger is indeed the guilty party or a victim of mistaken identity. On a deeper level, the woman's...