Garage Olimpo

I watched this absolutely gruesome film sixteen years ago now and I still remember it. I know that there were many films made about Chilia and Argentina dictatorship regimes, but unfortunately most of them did not reach France. Only a batch were available. This one is far better than COLONIA, speaking of Chilia and made for wide audiences, with the happy end which silly sissies crave for. I don't. How can you forget those unbearable scenes of torture whilst torturers' colleagues play ping pong in the backyard?...Of course this film, GARAGE OLIMPO is not destined for wide audiences, not for the squeamish.

If you have not seen it yet, run for it. It is available on DVD.

Bechis is a good example of the best Costa Gavras that you could ever see. This very dark Argentinian period is photographed with a very clean and doubtless hand. Do not leave anything pending, Bechis's position is quite clear and naked. The reality given by certain scenes could remember you some of those films shot in "film veritè" technique. The only critic that I could say about the film is that I would have prefer to get into deeper details of certain characters of the reasons why they decided to be torturers and follow certain life. A film that will not be forgotten, much less commercial than "Missing" of Costa Gavras. A fist in the stomach. Rating: 7

It may be of interest to note that the final sequence aboard the 'Hercules' aircraft of the 'Fuerza Aerea Argentina' was actually shot using a private plane which the director rented off a collector and had painted with Argentine Airforce colors and codes. The Argentine military had no intention to lend a plane, despite the atrocities committed 30 years ago. The City of Buenos Aires, cosmopolitan and civilized as it is, retains a large amount of its 'garages', to this day, although thankfully put to different use. A chilling list of the major torture centerers can be seen by the casual tourist within the walls of the Centro Cultural Recoleta, in Plaza Francia, City Centre. To this day torture cells are being uncovered.

As a person who suffered enormously at the hands of military establishment in Argentina, director Marco Bechis is the best person to know more about his film "Garage Olimpo". He wrote this film with his long time collaborator Lara Fremder who has already worked with him for three films. This film gives vivid details about what exactly happened in one of the torture cells in Buenos Aires where innocent people were subjugated to the worst forms of physical suffering. The film presents some good views of Buenos Aires as one gets to see big modern buildings on one side and shanty towns on the other side. On the surface level everything appears to be normal and it is only the relatives of the tortured people who are shown as facing tough times. Although the torture cell is portrayed in a detailed manner, Marco Bechis ensures that it does not become graphic. This is the reason why the torture is not at all glorified but merely depicted as one of the dirty tricks employed by the military to control its political opponents. The film is gripping as it shows that everybody is involved including the religious priest. One also gets to see that there are no loyalties and nobody could be trusted. It is towards the end that one gets a better idea of the evil designs of Argentine military establishment who chose to carry innocent people on its planes in order to drop them alive in the water. Despite having been chosen for "Un Certain Regard" section at Cannes International Film Festival 1999 and a theatrical release in France, this autobiographical film by Marco Bechis deserves to be known better as it carries the important message that human rights are important in order to stop the persecution of innocent people.

In the 70's, the eighteen year-old Maria Fabiani (Antonella Costa) lives with her French mother Diane (Dominique Sanda) in an old house in Buenos Aires, subletting rooms and giving classes to illiterate adults in the slums. One of the tenants, Felix (Carlos Echevarría), has a non-corresponded crush on Maria. When the teenager is abducted in her house by the Argentinean army accused of subversion, her mother seeks her out in the 23rd Precinct where one of the military without uniform tells her that they are heading with Maria. While Diane desperately tries to find information about her daughter, Maria is submitted to torture in the hideous underground of the Garage Olimpo. Out of the blue, Felix and she meet each other in the interrogation room and Maria finds that he is one of her torturers. Felix protects Maria the best he can while the prisoner develops the Stockholm Syndrome to her hostage-taker.

"Garage Olimpo" has just been released on DVD in Brazil and depicts the dark age of Argentina in the late 70's and early 80's (and also in most South America – Brazil, Chile and Uruguay), when the military governments sponsored by the United States of America disrupted the human rights of the civilian societies and promoted coup d'état and takeover, toppling the governments elected by people. In Argentina, the common practice was the torture and subsequent death of the militants that were drugged and then dropped in the sea by military airplanes, with their children given for adoption especially in the period 1976-1983. In Argentina, the unofficial number of missing persons in accordance with Human Rights Organizations is about 30,000 people. In Brazil, the number of people arrested by the military government was between 50,000 and 70,000 and in the present days, after the amnesty that protected mainly the torturers, there are still 140 missing persons. Garage Olimpo shows this procedure through the relationship of Maria with Felix, and also the desperation of her mother. Later, the Argentinean mothers of missing people have become human rights activists and formed the organization "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo" with the goal of finding their kidnapped children. Therefore, Garage Olimpo is a must-see especially for the youngest generations that might be not aware of the horrors of this period. The Brazilian DVD does not translate the last sentence in the movie accurately. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Garage Olimpo"