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"La noche de los lapices" is one of the best movies Argentina's made, not only because the story behind the movie was one of the worst part of our history, but also because it was for the director a heroic act to release a movie like this on those times.

I strongly beg you to NOT believe marychase's comment about this movie. If you actually WATCH the movie you'll notice that you'll need no "extra" info about that times.

This movie is not for the faint hearted, but it's the most realistic one I have ever seen about the brutality of a military dictatorship. But what I like most is the description of the friendship of college students who, despite emprisonmente and tortures, keep their dignity and their desire to struggle jointly for a better world. A movie which should be watched by every apathic teenager - the shock may really make him/her mature his/her views and attitudes.

I must disagree with "Marychase", undoubtedly she speaks for that sector which still denies the atrocities which occurred under the Argentinian regime. Anyone with a minimum criteria and has seen this film, (which is based on TRUE facts, and not supposedly), cannot say that children are terrorists, just because they had an ideal and thought differently and then were prived of their lives. This movie shows how far hatred can go and how a regime can intend to erase beliefs and dreams of a better world. The "terrorist" argument has been used and abused as an argument against a movement which fights a dictatorship. It's like calling "la resistance francaise" terrorists during the nazi occupation. In my opinion this movie also shows the common reality between several southamerican dictatorships.

I have seen this movie only twice, and the last time was at least ten years ago, but the memory has stayed with me. As my country becomes more repressed and dictatorial, this film has come back to haunt me.

The events start out very simply but under a paranoid regime, quickly escalate to a point that must have been unimaginable even to those living in Argentina at that time. When I first saw it, my heart ached for those children and their families caught up in a situation that was hard for me to imagine; now it seems closer than I could ever have dreamed.

The very simplicity of this film and its straightforward telling of the story of these bright and idealistic teenagers is all the more powerful for its lack of embellishment. There is no need to beat up the story and its hand-held cameras and lack of sophisticated lighting or makeup has the effect of breaking through the fourth wall and making us participants in the unfolding drama. We can't get away but neither can we help, and our powerlessness reflects that of the children and their families.

It should be mandatory viewing for all those who think "it can't happen here".

I have wanted to watch this movie for like three years, but my parents wouldn't let me because i was too little. Today i took courage, i sat down at my couch and i watched it, all by myself. Although i already knew the history of "La noche De los lapices" I must say, it really touched me in many ways. I'm 15 now, and until today I wouldn't realize the importance of a bus ticket, i really wouldn't because i would think that that couldn't have history. But now i understood that since the most big thing until the most little thing in the world are here for a reason. I don't know if you people will understand my point here because i actually find it very confusing to explain here. The thing is, these kids were around my age now. And until today i would not think thsat some kid could chamge the world, not the way they did. I personally know Pablo Diaz (the one who survive) because he is a friend of my mom, and i think this film impressed me this way because i actually knew one of them. I also want to say that this movie doesn't show all the facts, because there wasn't only one surviver, there were four of them. And i don't know why this film doesn't show them, because they are part of our history and they changed the country too. And to MaryChase, you can't say that a group of kids could be terrorists just by showing their ideas, that in fact, is what we do in a daily basis, and no one would kidnap us and torture us and KILL us now. SO YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT IT. I'm sorry if my English is bad, i hadn't practice in a long time.