Chronicle of an Escape (2007)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Touches You

Captivating movie !

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

I can't say I watched alot of Argentinian movies but this one is certainly worth a watch. Also because the movie is based on actual events, it made it even more captivating and interesting to watch. The seventies, it's actually not that long time ago, were not really good times in Argentina if you had the idea of criticizing the actual regime. The military dictatorship of that time was systematically eliminating dissidents to the regime. In this story, that is sometimes hard to watch, we witness the kidnapping and interrogations of some alleged 'Desaparecidos'. It was not a good time to have 'lefties' ideas. The acting was very good, as it looked all very real and disgusting. A good movie from Israel Adrián Caetano. I will look for more of his movies.

One of the aspects of this excellent film from Argentina is the disturbing fact that it is based on actual events. Director Israel Adrián Caetano (with Esteban Student and Julian Loyola) created the screenplay from the main character's memoir - 'Pase libre' by Claudio Tamburrini - and in doing so bring a sense of immediacy and unfiltered truth to this tale of the 1977 military dictatorship in Argentina during the time of the 'Desaparecidos' or terminal evacuation/elimination of dissidents to the regime. CHRONICLE OF AN ESCAPE (Crónica de una fuga) relates the capture of soccer goalie Claudio Tamburrini (Rodrigo de la Serna, remembered for his magnetic portrayal of Alberto in 'The Motorcycle Diaries') during a soccer game in 1977 when he was abducted, blindfolded, and taken to a house of detention as a suspected revolutionary. Claudio is beaten, interrogated, starved, and forced to live nude, blindfolded and in handcuffs chained to his palette along with other detainees - Guillermo Fernández (Nazareno Casero), El Gallego (Lautaro Delgado), El Vasco (Matías Marmorato) and El Tano (Martín Urruty). Each of the detainees is repeatedly tortured and deprived of the 'necessities' of living until after four months the group decides to escape. The tension of their ingenious escape provides the film with a tense and riveting closure, and at the end of the film the destinies of each of the detainees is revealed. Though the world knows some of the details of the military junta in Argentina that lasted from 1976 to 1985, observing the calamity in the form of real individuals who suffered pleads the case for understanding the atrocities better than simply reading media accounts. The manner in which Caetano directs his superb cast is enhanced by the extraordinary cinematography of Julián Apezteguía and the moody and creatively subtle musical score by Iván Wyszogrod. The cast is uniformly excellent: though the men who play the evil torturers have not been named in this review they are all very strong actors. This is a tough movie to watch and the audience should be aware that the prisoners appear in the nude throughout the film (if that is a problem for some viewers). In Spanish with English subtitles. Very strongly recommended, especially in this time when the concept of 'detainees' is so very much in the public eye once again! Grady Harp

I caught this film on IFC in Theaters on cable.True story of what happened in Argentina in 1977 when a goalie on a soccer team was kidnapped by the secret police and thrown into a secret prison and tortured for information he didn't have.Good story of imprisonment and escape by several young men being held and tortured by the military government. The early portion of the film is a terrifying portrait of a government out of control and how in the process it leaves everyone feeling frightened (I will refrain from making Bush comparisons). Once in the prison, actually a secluded old house, we watch as the men there are repeatedly tortured for information concerning a terrorist attack. Its clear from many conversations that the captors want names even though as one prisoner says he has no names to give them. Its a damning portrait of the uselessness of torture, since its clear you may just get a confession to make the pain stop. Unfortunately there is a sameness to it all that grows tiresome, it wears away the tension from the situation. I'm sure the tension never went away from the men being held but for me sitting in my seat watching I just wanted them to get on with it.The final portion of the film is the actual escape. Its a good piece of film making however there isn't as much fear as there should be and thats to do with the title of the film (it tells us what happens), the opening text (which tells us how we know the story) and in my case the marketing and reviews, which gave away way too much information.(and in all fairness I've probably said too much myself). I wish I didn't know what I had been told about and by the film so that the final portion of the film would have played so much tenser.6 out of 10 (though add a few more if you manage not to know anything about the actual events)

Buenos Aires 1977 tells the true story of four men who narrowly escaped death at the hands of a military death squad during the Argentinean dirty war in the late 1970s.The Dirty War is the name given to the state-sponsored violence against citizens mostly carried out between 1976 and 1983 by Jorge Rafael Videla's military government in Argentina during what was called by the dictatorship the "National Reorganization Process" or what the modern world calls "genocide".The film follows Claudio Tamburrini, a goal keeper for a minor league football team, who was forcefully kidnapped by members of the Argentine secret military police.He is taken to a detention center known as Sere Mansion which is an old dilapidated house in a suburban neighbourhood on the suspicion he's an anti-government terrorist.Tamburrini is not alone and his fellow abductees are frequently tortured by the jailers for information he doesn't have because he was never a political activist.After four months of imprisonment, and many sessions of torture, Tamburrini and his fellow captives make a break for freedom.It is a gripping film throughout with bleak filming adding depth to the situation making it a taut psychological thriller especially because you are aware that this actually happened. The camera work and acting immerse the viewer into the mundane but arduous life that these innocent prisoners lead right through to the climatic finale.According to the Nunca Más report issued by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP) in 1984, about 9,000 people were "disappeared" between 1976 and 1983. Estimates by human rights organisations place the number at closer to 30,000.Buenos Aires 1977 is a deeply moving and involving film worth a trip to the cinema for an education on both how to shoot this kind of film and a brief education about the not-so-distant Dirty War of Argentina.