Buenos Aires 1977

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Buenos Aires 1977
Original title Crónica de una fuga
Country of production Argentina
original language Spanish
Publishing year 2006
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Adrián Caetano
script Adrián Caetano,
Esteban Student ,
Julian Loyola
production Óscar Kramer ,
Hugo Sigman
music Iván Wyszogrod
occupation

Buenos Aires 1977 (original title: Crónica de una fuga , English title: Chronicle of an Escape ) is a political thriller produced in Argentina in 2006 . The film describes the agonizing experiences of political prisoners ( Desaparecidos ) in Argentina during the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 . The film plot is based on real events. The film was shown for the first time in March 2006 in Buenos Aires . In the German-speaking area, the cinema was released at the beginning of October 2007.

action

The main character of the film is the student Claudio Tamburrini . After a game by his soccer team Club Almagro , in which he was a goalkeeper, he was dragged into a car on November 23, 1977 by government henchmen who remained anonymous and kidnapped. His mother's apartment was previously visited, where she was forced, under threat of physical violence and above all through psychological pressure, to provide information about the whereabouts of her son, who, according to the kidnappers, is wanted as a terrorist.

The totally intimidated Claudio is driven to a villa just outside of Buenos Aires. After a night in captivity, the first interrogation began under torture , during which his head, alternating with that of fellow prisoner El Tano, was pressed into the underwater bathtub for several seconds in order to obtain a confession from him. The pleading and the cries of pain of the tortured complement the film images.

Claudio Tamburrini is accused of being a “leftist” in opposition to the military government and of actively participating in the opposition movement as the owner of a printing press. Claudio's pledges of innocence go unheard. Only later in the film does the viewer find out that he was denounced by the opponent El Tano , who was coincidentally called the name of Claudio Tamburrini in the agony of torture.

The film or its plot is less impressive because of the cinematic staging of the physical torture, but rather shows the viewer the psychological suffering of the prisoners. The story of the film now focuses on the four housed in the same room: Claudio, Guillermo, the " Galician " and the " Basque ". The time that has passed in the prison camp is shown with the help of overlays according to the scheme “31. Day "," 45. Day ”etc. are shown. The oppressive narrowness in which the cramped and only scantily clad men have to endure is made clear to the audience. The men vegetate to themselves like animals , with a barely recognizable hope of salvation, repeatedly exposed to an interrogation, to whose questions there are no answers. Added to this is the uncertainty about the fate and whereabouts of El Tano. The behavior of the sadistic guards, which is primarily aimed at psychological torture, is also an important part of the process. These include false promises of release as well as sham executions . The blindfolds are also degrading. The rooms are only equipped with mattresses, they have to beg the guards to go to the toilet. The prisoners are only given a change from time to time, as they are assigned to do housework.

In this hopeless situation, the thought of a rebellion or escape is not recognizable for the four prisoners, the fear is too heavy. This tension culminates in the scene when it would have been possible during kitchen duty to knock the guard Lucas down with a frying pan and to take hold of the pistol that was within reach.

Only when fellow prisoner Guillermo was able to open the window in the room thanks to a screw did they decide, initially against the resistance of the "Galician", to dare to escape. With the sheets tied together, on March 31, 1978, the 121st day since Claudio was captured, the men managed to rappel down the wall in the pouring rain and leave the villa's property.

But for the completely naked men, the escape is not over yet. The viewer is impressively conveyed the fear to which the men are exposed on the night of the escape and the following day, of being discovered by their tormentors.

background

The film focuses on the drama of the 30,000 or so people who were secretly kidnapped , tortured and then mostly murdered by the Argentine military regime as supposed enemies of the state . Because the victims were often reported to the authorities as missing by their relatives , the term Desaparecidos (the disappeared) was used to describe the victims . It is based on the life story of Claudio Tamburrini , who today lives as a recognized philosopher in his new home country Sweden . In contrast to the fate of the film's protagonists, the majority of the prisoners had no chance to escape. Most were murdered and their bodies disposed of after a relatively short period of torture imprisonment. The military themselves described their actions as a dirty war against so-called subversion . Since the end of the dictatorship, a large number of films have been made on this topic. In addition to Argentina, similar events took place in numerous other Central and South American countries in the 1970s and 1980s , such as Chile , Paraguay and Guatemala . Most of these countries worked together in the pursuit of real and alleged opponents of the regime across borders as part of Operation Condor .

Reviews

  • The internet platform filmtipps.at adopts the concept of torture: Even if the film hits the viewer's stomach strongly and the faint-hearted probably expects too much naked, inhuman violence, the film makes it clear in a drastic way what torture really means.
  • The online magazine for film criticism (filmrezension.de) refers to the cinematic implementation of imprisonment: Here the terrible is reduced to the bare minimum, because Caetano masterfully focuses on the oppressive imprisonment. All the more intensely, he moves the physical, and especially the psychologically worn-out decline of the prisoners into the center of this claustrophobic hell.

Honors

The film received several nominations and awards, especially in Argentina (Clarín Awards, Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards). The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or when it was shown on May 27, 2006 in Cannes and received the main award Aurora at the Norwegian Tromsø Internasjonale Film Festival in 2007 .

DVD publications

The (German-language) DVD edition contains two German-spoken audio tracks (in DTS format and in the Dolby version ) as well as the original Spanish version. In addition to the documentation “Chronicle of an Encounter” (12:34) and the “Making of” (24:24), the bonus material on the DVD also includes three TV spots (1:12) and a total of nine trailers, including three for the main film.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Opening dates for Cronica de una fuga
  2. ↑ The goalie who became a refugee
  3. ↑ filmtipps.at film review
  4. ↑ filmrezension.de film review
  5. ↑ Awards and nominations for Cronica de una fuga
  6. ↑ Tromsø International Film Festival: Aurora pinches . Retrieved April 5, 2011 (Norwegian)
  7. ↑ Information about the DVD edition on dvd-palace.de