Missing

As darkness falls on a terrified city, taxis and buses refuse all passengers, trapped pedestrians beg strangers for sanctuary, even an earthquake cannot drive people onto the street. It may sound like apocalyptic science fiction, but it's Costa-Gavras' extraordinary first American movie, based on true events during the Chilean coup of 1973. It explores the disappearance of a young American writer, and prompted a furious rebuttal from the US State Department. Spacek and Lemmon are fine as the missing man's wife and father, but what makes the film so overwhelming in places is its unending night-time imagery of a society coming apart at the seams. Costa-Gavras underpins his campaigning content with all the electric atmosphere of a paranoid conspiracy thriller, and ensures that Missing will remain the cinematic evocation of a military coup for years to come.