Arquivo

A man decapitates his mistress (Florinda Bolkan) with the blade on a razor. He then spreads evidence over the scene of the crime pointing to the author of the crime: he introduces a thread from his tie under one nail of his victim, smears her blood on the sole of his shoe, and leaves finger prints on a glass and on the telephone. This man is the respected, efficient chief of the Homicide Sector, newly promoted to the Department of Political Information. What would be the significance of this police officer`s wanting to incriminate himself? He wants to prove to himself that, with the power attributed to him in his position, he is untouchable, or better, "above suspicion". Concomitantly, he tries to incriminate another of his victim`s lovers, a university anarchist. The film was awarded the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Foreign Film Academy Award.