The Crimes That Bind (2020) is an Argentine psychological crime drama and thriller directed by Sebastián Schindel. Originally titled Crímenes de familia, the film explores family loyalty, privilege, domestic violence, social inequality, denial, and the painful consequences of protecting people we love.
Starring Cecilia Roth, Miguel Ángel Solá, Benjamín Amadeo, Sofía Gala Castiglione, and Yanina Ávila, the film gradually transforms from a courtroom-oriented family drama into a deeply unsettling story about secrets and moral responsibility.
Released internationally on Netflix in August 2020, The Crimes That Bind received generally favorable critical attention, particularly for its performances and its examination of complicated social and family issues.
🎬 Synopsis
Alicia Campos is a wealthy middle-class woman living comfortably in Buenos Aires with her husband, Ignacio, their live-in domestic worker Gladys, and Gladys’s young son.
Alicia’s seemingly comfortable life begins to collapse when her adult son, Daniel, is accused of brutally assaulting and attempting to murder his former wife.
Convinced that her son is innocent—or at least determined to protect him regardless of the truth—Alicia begins doing everything she can to prevent him from going to prison.
But Daniel’s case is only one of the problems threatening the family.
At the same time, Gladys becomes involved in a separate legal case concerning the death of her newborn child. The contrast between the two cases exposes a disturbing difference in how wealth, social status, gender, and power influence people’s lives.
As Alicia becomes increasingly involved in both situations, she begins to uncover uncomfortable truths about her son, her household, and herself.
📖 Plot
The film opens by introducing Alicia and Ignacio, an affluent couple living a comfortable life in Buenos Aires. Their home is also occupied by Gladys, their domestic worker, and her young son Santiago.
Alicia has a particularly complicated relationship with her son Daniel. Although he is an adult and has a history of personal problems, she remains fiercely protective of him.
Everything changes when Daniel is accused of raping and attempting to murder his ex-wife.
Alicia immediately refuses to believe that her son could have committed such acts. She begins searching for lawyers and exploring every possible way of helping him avoid prison.
Her husband Ignacio is considerably more skeptical. Unlike Alicia, he is increasingly concerned that Daniel may actually be responsible.
The family’s efforts to protect Daniel reveal the extent to which Alicia’s love has become a form of denial. She is prepared to use her financial resources and social connections to influence the situation.
Meanwhile, Gladys faces a completely different kind of crisis.
Gladys, who comes from a troubled and abusive background, becomes involved in a criminal investigation surrounding the death of her newborn child. Unlike Daniel, she has very little money, social influence, or protection.
The two cases gradually begin to mirror each other.
Alicia initially sees Gladys as someone who needs her help. However, as the story progresses, Alicia discovers information that forces her to reconsider what she believes about both Gladys and her own family.
The investigation into Daniel’s behavior eventually reveals a much darker reality than Alicia wanted to accept.
Her image of her son begins to collapse, and she must confront the consequences of having protected him for so long.
The film ultimately becomes less about solving a crime and more about whether love can become dangerous when it refuses to acknowledge the truth.
🎥 Review
The Crimes That Bind is a slow-burning psychological drama that deliberately takes its time before revealing the full extent of its characters’ secrets.
Director Sebastián Schindel avoids turning the movie into a conventional crime thriller. Instead, the film focuses heavily on character psychology and the uncomfortable moral questions surrounding family loyalty.
One of its strongest elements is the gradual transformation of Alicia.
At first, she appears to be a loving mother desperately trying to save her son. As the story progresses, however, the audience begins to understand that her devotion has prevented her from seeing reality clearly.
The film asks an important question:
How far should a parent go to protect a child—and when does protection become complicity?
⭐ Cecilia Roth’s Performance
Cecilia Roth gives the film its emotional center as Alicia.
Her performance captures the character’s changing emotional state particularly well. Alicia moves from confidence and denial to confusion, fear, guilt, and eventually painful recognition.
Rather than portraying Alicia as simply a good or bad person, Roth gives her considerable psychological complexity.
⭐ Miguel Ángel Solá
Miguel Ángel Solá is equally effective as Ignacio, Alicia’s husband.
Ignacio provides an important contrast to Alicia. While she is emotionally attached to Daniel’s innocence, Ignacio is more willing to consider the possibility that their son is guilty.
His character represents a more rational response to the family’s crisis.
⭐ Sofía Gala Castiglione
Sofía Gala Castiglione delivers a strong performance as Marcela, Daniel’s former wife.
Her character is essential to the film because her experience challenges Alicia’s carefully constructed version of her son.
⭐ Yanina Ávila
Yanina Ávila brings considerable emotional weight to Gladys, whose storyline introduces questions about poverty, domestic work, social inequality, and the vulnerability of women without wealth or social influence.
Her performance helps prevent the movie from becoming solely a story about an affluent family.
🧠 Themes and Social Commentary of The Crimes That Bind
One of the film’s greatest strengths is its exploration of several interconnected themes.
Family Loyalty
Alicia’s love for Daniel is unconditional, but the film questions whether unconditional loyalty is always virtuous.
Denial
Alicia doesn’t simply lack information. She repeatedly chooses to believe what makes her emotionally comfortable.
Wealth and Privilege
The film contrasts Alicia’s privileged position with Gladys’s vulnerability.
Money gives Alicia access to lawyers, influence, and opportunities that Gladys does not possess.
Domestic Violence
The movie deals with disturbing issues involving abuse, violence against women, and sexual violence without treating them simply as conventional thriller elements.
Social Inequality
The parallel stories of Alicia and Gladys demonstrate how dramatically different the justice system can feel depending on someone’s social and economic position.
Moral Responsibility
Perhaps the film’s most important question is whether refusing to acknowledge wrongdoing makes a person partially responsible for its consequences.
🏆 Awards and Recognition
The Crimes That Bind received significant recognition within Argentine and Latin American film-award circles.
At the Argentine Academy Awards, the film received multiple nominations and won the award for Best Supporting Actress for Sofía Gala Castiglione.
The film also received nominations at the Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards, including recognition for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, and supporting performances.
At the Platino Awards for Ibero-American Cinema, it received nominations including recognition for acting and screenplay.
Overall, the film accumulated multiple wins and more than twenty award nominations across different award bodies, with particularly strong recognition for its acting and screenplay.
⭐ Popularity of The Crimes That Bind
The film developed a solid international audience after becoming available globally on Netflix.
Its appeal comes largely from its combination of:
- Psychological family drama
- Crime and courtroom elements
- Social commentary
- Strong female characters
- Moral ambiguity
- Argentine performances
- Gradually unfolding secrets
On IMDb, The Crimes That Bind has maintained a rating of approximately 6.7/10, while Rotten Tomatoes records generally positive critical reception, with critics giving the film an 80% Tomatometer score based on its listed reviews.
The movie has also attracted viewers who enjoy slower, character-driven international thrillers rather than conventional Hollywood crime films.
🎞️ Other Details
Original Title: Crímenes de familia
English Title: The Crimes That Bind
Year: 2020
Country: Argentina
Language: Spanish
Genre: Crime, Drama, Psychological Thriller
Director: Sebastián Schindel
Writers: Sebastián Schindel, Pablo del Teso
Production Companies: Buffalo Films, Magoya Films, Tieless Media
Main Cast: Cecilia Roth, Miguel Ángel Solá, Benjamín Amadeo, Sofía Gala Castiglione, Yanina Ávila,
Runtime: Approximately 99 minutes
Original Release: August 2020
International Distributor/Platform: Netflix
The film was released internationally as a Netflix original and became part of the platform’s collection of Spanish-language and Latin American dramas.
🎭 Why The Crimes That Bind Is Worth Watching
The Crimes That Bind is particularly suitable for viewers who enjoy films where the mystery is closely connected to character development.
It isn’t a fast-paced thriller filled with constant action. Instead, it gradually builds tension through conversations, legal proceedings, family conflicts, and revelations.
The parallel stories of Alicia and Gladys are especially effective because they expose the difference between having someone willing to fight for you and having no one to fight for you.
The film also refuses to make its characters completely innocent or completely guilty. Almost everyone is forced to confront some form of responsibility.
The Crimes That Bind (2020) is a thoughtful Argentine psychological crime drama that uses a family crisis to explore much larger issues of privilege, domestic violence, social inequality, denial, and moral responsibility.
Cecilia Roth gives the film a powerful emotional foundation as a mother whose unconditional love gradually becomes impossible to separate from denial.
Although the movie can feel slow during its early stages, its patient approach allows the characters and their secrets to develop naturally. The final revelations give greater meaning to the events that came before them.
For viewers who enjoy international crime dramas, courtroom stories, psychological thrillers, and socially conscious films, The Crimes That Bind is a compelling and unsettling choice.
It is ultimately a film about the dangerous things people can hide—and about how sometimes the hardest crime to confront is the truth within one’s own family.
