Buenos Aires 1977

. In the space of an afternoon, Claudio (Rodrigo de la Serna from ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’) keeps goal for his local second-division football team before being picked up at gunpoint by the security forces and bundled off to a secret location. It’s the time of the military junta, and the crackdown on perceived ‘terrorists’ leads to torture and custody without trial for thousands of such innocents. Without getting bogged down in brutalities, Caetano’s thoughtful film concentrates instead on the psychological battle between the captors and their prisoners, bringing out the solidarity which informs the prisoners’ sheer will to endure. Based on testimony from those involved, it’s a sobering act of remembrance, a warning against future abuses of power, and a stomach-knotting thriller.