Asi Como Habian Sido, 1986
(Trio)

Director: Lineras Andrew

"Trio" is a wonderful movie about childhood friends and rivals whose lives take very different turns. Antonio plays Marius who, as a young boy, meets Thomas - a very rich boy who is an accomplished pianist. Marius is a streetwise kid who introduces Thomas to smoking and is better than him at just about everything but music. When Marius tries his hand at the piano, Thomas's mother tells him he has the hands of a violinist and gives the boy violin lessons.

As young adults, they attend an arts school in Madrid and are joined by a cellist named Alberto. Marius is a very handsome young man with a mop of black curls, and he attracts the girls that Thomas desires, despite the fact that Thomas is also good looking. As a trio they make a tape to send to Juliard in New York where both Thomas and Marius, who is a very gifted violinist, intend to apply.

The setting is the late 1960s in Madrid, and the news is full of police brutality against demonstrators, one of whom is Marius. On a particularly bad night both Thomas and Alberto rush to Marius's apartment to find it empty and worry sick about him until he wanders home very late but unharmed. Both men try to persuade Marius to drop his anti-Franco stance but he refuses. The other two go to their homes and burn any papers that could associate them with the demonstrators, including Marius.

At the opera one evening, Thomas's mother, who is not well, takes Marius aside at intermission and asks him not to compete against Thomas for the coveted Juliard spot and withdraws her financial support. All of this is done with Thomas's obvious knowledge as is evident by the look of guilt on his face. His mother is very regretful because she loves Marius like a son. Marius is devastated at the betrayal but accepts the inevitable with grace, but Alberto is quite disgusted with Thomas's actions and offers emotional support to Marius whose dreams of being a professional musician are fading.

Thomas goes off to Juliard and becomes an accomplished pianist who is recognized world-wide. Years later he returns to Madrid with his American wife to show her his country and look up his old friends with whom he has lost touch. He finds Alberto easily as he is still working as a musician, but Alberto will reveal little about Marius's fate other than to tell Thomas that Marius was arrested shortly after Thomas left Spain and spent a long time in prison. Alberto contacts Marius's wife by telephone and tells her that Thomas is looking for Marius and she tells him not to reveal where he is. Alberto and Thomas argue when Thomas refuses to accept any responsibility at all for Marius's fate despite the fact that he was well aware of the danger Marius was in if he remained in Spain. Alberto will reveal only that Marius lives in a small mountain village but nothing more.

Thomas searches village after village by car until one day he comes to a small place high in the mountains where a celebration is in progress. He finds musicians and dancers in the village square and finds Marius's wife who had been a ballet dancer at the arts school in Madrid. She reveals that Marius had indeed been imprisoned but also tortured and his left hand horribly maimed. He is no longer able to play the violin. Just then the sound of a lively trumpet can be heard coming from the square, and Thomas is drawn outside to find Marius on stage playing a mean trumpet with the village band using only his right hand. He looks older, the mop of curls tamed and slicked back.

Alberto is also in the crowd and he catches Marius's eye and draws his attention to Thomas who is standing still with shock, staring at his friend. The look on Marius's face is devastating as he sees the pity and guilt in Thomas's eyes and Marius struggles momentarily with his own conflicting emotions. It is easy to see that he never expected to see Thomas again. Then he leaves the stage and wraps his right arm around his old friend and they embrace. Through his actions Marius reveals that all is forgiven. Thomas is still stunned at the depths to which his friend seems to have has sunk while he has reaped the glory of a successful musical career. But when Marius takes the stage again his face and posture reveal how much he loves what he is doing and his simple life in the small village.

Thomas returns to New York a much more somber man, understanding that maybe it is he who is the lost soul, not Marius.