The Honorary Consul (1983) on Netflix

During Dirty War, half-English doctor in Argentina befriends the police, the rebels and the alcoholic Honorary British Consul, whose Latino wife he seduces. When the consul is mistakenly kidnapped by the rebels, he must pick a side.

During the rule of brutal right-wing military juntas in Paraguay and Argentina, half-English/half-Paraguayan medical doctor Eduardo Plarr returns from Buenos Aires to work in the small town of Corrientes, Argentina, where he first arrived after his escape from Paraguay years earlier. He quickly forms new friendships such as the one with the alcoholic British Honorary Consul, Charley Fortnum, whose beautiful Argentinian wife, former high-class prostitute Clara, Eduardo seduces and they have a passionate affair. He also re-establishes old ones like the one with the junta's Colonel Perez and Leon, a former priest turned rebel leader, who also happens to be Eduardo's childhood friend from Paraguay. All of this comes together to create a serious problem for Eduardo when he is asked to help the rebels kidnap the US ambassador, who's coming to visit Corrientes and whose kidnapping might force the US to force the Paraguayan junta to release several political prisoners, including Eduardo's father who may or may not still be alive.

—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

Dr. Eduardo Plarr is a medical doctor with a Paraguayan deceased mother and an English anti-junta revolutionary father, possibly still alive but imprisoned in Paraguay, who lives in Argentina during the country's so-called Dirty War. He unsuccessfully tries to get news about his father from his Argentinian pro-junta acquaintance Colonel Perez. One night, Eduardo is summoned to attend to the alcoholic British Honorary Consul, Charley Fortnum, who asks to be taken to a brothel, where Eduardo notices a beautiful young prostitute but she leaves with another man. When he later returns to the whorehouse to find her, he learns that the prostitute, Clara, left the place for good. Some time later, Charley calls him to examine his wife, and when Eduard arrives, he sees that Charley's wife is none other than Clara. One day, Eduardo meets her by chance in a store and buys her an expensive pair of sunglasses. Clara goes with him to his apartment and they begin a love affair. When Clara becomes pregnant by Eduardo, Charley believes that the baby is his. Meanwhile Eduardo's childhood friend from Paraguay, Leon, visits him in his office and tells him that his father is still alive in prison in Paraguay. Furthermore, he tells him that he and his rebel friends plans to abduct the American Ambassador and exchange him for several political prisoners in Paraguay including Eduardo's father. However, Leon needs inside information about the ambassador's visit and asks Eduardo to get it from Charley. What will Eduardo do?

—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Set in a small politically unstable Latin American country, the story follows half-English/half-Latin doctor Eduardo Plarr (Richard Gere), who left his home to find a better life. Along the way, he meets an array of people, including the British Consul Charley Fortnum (Michael Caine), a representative in Latin America who is trying to keep a revolution from occurring, who is also a remorseful alcoholic. Another person the doctor meets is Clara (Elpidia Carrillo), whom he immediately desires, but there is a problem: Clara is Charley's wife.

Dr. Eduardo Plarr has lived in Argentina since he was a youth after he and his Paraguayan mother fled Paraguay when his British father was captured by the Paraguayan junta and held as a political prisoner, where he remains. Eduardo now has a medical practice in the northeastern Argentinean town of Corrientes, across the river from Paraguay as he continually awaits news of his father. In his general travels in Corrientes, he becomes acquainted with Colonel Perez of the Argentinean military police, and Charley Fortnum, the honorary British consul who has been assigned to this outpost as being generally of little use to the British government, Charley's issues including his alcoholism and his womanizing, he often frequenting Sra. Sanchez's whorehouse. Eduardo becomes Charley's personal physician, as well as that of Charley's new wife, Clara, who Eduardo is dismayed to see is the Indian prostitute at Sra. Sanchez's on whom he had his eye. Eduardo's relationships with Charley, Clara and Colonel Perez become more complicated when he reconnects with his Paraguayan guerrilla friends from his youth, who try to talk him into getting involved in a plot with them to kidnap the US Ambassador, who they hope they can trade for political prisoners, including Eduardo's father.

—Huggo