Buenos Aires 1977

In 1977, the goalkeeper of the Almagro team Claudio Tamburrini (Rodrigo de la Serna) is illegally kidnapped from his home, arrested by the government forces and sent blindfolded to Sere Mansion, a clandestine detention center. His acquaintance Tano (Martín Urruty), who had been tortured for a long period, had falsely accused Claudio of being a revolutionary. Along the months, Claudio is kept nude and handcuffed together with the prisoners El Gallego (Lautaro Delgado), El Vasco (Matías Marmorato) and Guillermo Fernández (Nazareno Casero) and submitted to all sort of humiliations and tortures, until the night they decide to escape from their imprisonment in the old mansion.

The dramatic "Crónica de una Fuga" is a true recollection of a dark period of dictatorship in South America sponsored by USA to fight the communism, more specifically in Argentina. The story is very well acted but limited to the situation of Claudio and the other three prisoners in the Sere Mansion and their escape. However it omits, for example, that Tano and the other prisoners have been certainly dropped airborne from an Air Force airplane (the Jeep indicates Air Force Argentine, and this was a common practice in the dictatorship period). My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Crônica de uma Fuga" ("Chronicle of an Escape")

"Crónica de una Fuga" is not only an objective journey through Argentina's shady past, but also an engaging thriller that will keep you at the edge of your seat.

Uruguayan director Adrian Caetano, proves himself to be on of the leading filmmakers among the flourishing Argentinean film industry. The director of "Bolivia" and "Un Oso Rojo" is very precise when it comes to dialogues, and has an ability to acknowledge violence only by showing its imminence -the most powerful and cruel moments are achieved by creating a meticulous balance with the sound fields-.

It is also worth mentioning Rodrigo de la Serna's performance, who after working opposite to Gael Garcia Bernal in "Motorcycle Diaries" managed to establish himself as one of the most talented Latin American actor of his generation.

Set to be released around Jan. 2007, "Cronica" is an insightful thriller that should not be missed.

Yes, this time we can be sure. This movie will bring home the first award since "la historia Oficial". But the great thing about this movie is that it does not need any award to prove how great it is. When you have some great performances, specially from the best south-American actor of his generation, Rodrigo de la Serna (Diarios de Motocicleta), and a director who has achieved his most mature work, and all of this to tell a story so sad, deep, breathtaking and energetic, you can't go wrong. I was lucky enough as to see this film on a preview, so this is the first vote it receives at the IMDb. But believe me, this movie has future of top 250. Not that it needs it, anyway. Finally, if you are from Argentina, and you think that we have had enough with this type of stories, think of all the missing tales similar to this one, that we'll never know of. They are at least 30.000. So we need to continue filming and writing about the seventies, until one day we'll be able to say. "This won't happen again"

Cronica de una Fuga deals with true events in the history of Argentina during the "dirty war" of the seventies. These events having to do with the government, make up a very dark period in the country's history and do not offer much more than sad memories. The movie concentrates on the personal experience of Claudio, who was apprehended by agents and placed in a house together with many more kidnapped men. Caetano, through the use of different cinematographic techniques, makes it clear that the men are seen as inferior and are treated horribly. However, the movie provides the audience with much hope as Claudio strives to survive and does not give up whatever the circumstances may be around him. Moreover, team work which the prisoners develop as they are kept in the house, speaks strongly for the need of people to come together when times get tough. The movie overall is a good one as it concentrates on a positive aspect in the middle of such a negative situation. It is tough to make a movie about this dark time period and have it be an uplifting story in the end.

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