La noche de 12 años

I'm Puerto Rican, I love Latin and Hispanic cinema and when I find productions that are gems of our countries I feel proud like a little child with a medal. A vibrant, exciting and very sad film. Anyone who wants to know a piece of Latin America, I invite you to see this movie, one of those stories that have shaped what we are, for better or for worse. The main actors of first level. Soledad Villamil equal or better than in "El Secreto de Sus Ojos" and Antonio De La Torre with another brutal, exciting, historical interpretation, which puts him back on my personal list of Latin American favored actors of the last decade with Benicio Del Toro, Ricado Darín and Leonardo Sbaraglia. Without much to say, if you are an admirer of Latin American history, I recommend you to see the film without subjective emotions that cloud your thinking. It's incredible, as Mujica became President of Uruguay after the events that took place. Utopian, everything, probably the best film of Latin America in 2018 and one of the best latin american productions of the last decade. Pure Latin American history.

What really gripped me here is that this movie was based on real men who spent twelve long years in solitary confinement. The first thing to know is that this is a drama so don't expect tons of action and war like a lot of military films.

This film depicts these three men and their suffering while desperately trying to cling onto hope. Not everyone talks about it, but this is a sad reality for a lot of political prisoners or hostages. The film does well capturing the pain and torment these men endured at the hands of their captures.

I do however feel like we could have received more detailed background on their detainment as those scenes were sometimes unclear. Considering how long the film is, they could have easily cut some of the repetition towards the second half and focused more on that. Other than being called communists, it's a little unclear of the actual events that led them to be locked up in the first place.

Please watch this movie... A beautiful movie.. A brilliant true story.. This are not a marvel heroes!! This are the true super heroes!!!

For start - better check the biography of the people represented in that movie, it'll give you a better overview over the events, as it's poorly presented in the production. But it's good. And by "hard" I mean what those people survived. It may seem as not that bad, yet of course being in terrible condition prisons, but that's what it is - nothing (!) happened to those people for twelve years aside from suppressing their existence even there. Almost no contact with others, not being let to go outside, not been given anything to spend their time and this really is a torture that can drive a person insane. Even the smallest everyday activity we don't care about (like going to the toiled) was a breath of air for them.

This movie is outstanding! Carefully documented, it reconstitutes the confinement, the total isolation, the abuse of all kinds that endured three political prisoners of the Tupamaros movement, during twelve long years, knowing that the military dictatorship of the Uruguay began with the coup of June 27, 1973. Thus, Álvaro Brechner has managed, with a superior ease, a cinematographic challenge: transform a soporific event in a journey as breathless as undesired. Soporific? Well... it's unfortunately a fact: in the depths of their prison, these three compañeros spent 99% of their day doing seemingly nothing. Thanks to Álvaro Brechner and these three splendid actors, you will be completely immersed in prison horror, even if you are devoid of empathy. You will be fully aware of this confused state of anxiety, hallucination, anger, fear, nightmare, resistance and hope that these three protagonists had naturally to go through. The director's approach is more psychological than truly political: through this story, he highlights the capacity of resilience and the ability to remain honest.

Moreover, the song of Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence", interpreted almost a cappella by Silvia Pérez Cruz, moves the audience to the tears. A rare emotional force in perfect harmony with the movie!

Finally, in order to quibble a little bit, two hardly credible scenes: 1) A blindfold chess game via a Morse-code communication? 2) All the Uruguayan military bureaucracy would be necessary to realize the impossibility of defecating in a vertical position? Allow me doubting about these two scenes, but it's so comforting to imagine these men trying to break their loneliness (for the first one), and it's so hilarious (for the second one).

As a synthesis: what a masterful work!!