La noche de los lápices (1986)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Héctor Olivera

Writers:

Daniel Kon (screenplay) and
Héctor Olivera (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

4 September 1986 (Argentina)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Torture | Argentina | Kidnapping | Electrical Torture | Male Frontal Nudity

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Alejo García Pintos	...	Pablo
Vita Escardó	...	Claudia
Pablo Novak	...	Horacio (as Pablo Novarro)
Leonardo Sbaraglia	...	Daniel
José María Monje	...	Panchito (as José Ma. Monje Berbel)
Pablo Machado	...	Claudio
Adriana Salonia	...	María Clara
David Gerber	...	Rusito
Marcelo Serre	...	Corchito
Walter Peña	...	Carozo Schunk
Daniel San Joaquín	...	Chirom
Demián Celentano	...	Diamanti
Mariana Cedon	...	Luisa Pisani (as Mariana Cedrón)
Diego Korol	...	Crivelli
Gustavo Tieffenberg	...	Delegado asamblea 1 (as Gustavo Tiffemberg)

Also Known As:

Night of the Pencils (USA)
Die Nacht der tausend Schreie (West Germany) [de]
La notte delle matite spezzate (Italy) [it]

Runtime:

105 min | Italy:90 min

Country:

Argentina

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Argentina:16 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Company:

Aries Cinematográfica Argentina

Intense, but necessary

I have always known of the existence of this film, but avoided it through many years due to the heartbreaking intense scenes I knew it contained. This year we are remembering in Argentina the thirtieth anniversary of the terrible dictatorship, so the film was shown at my high school and I could see it for the first time. There are not enough words to express how I felt; imagining I could have been one of the victims if I had lived thirty years ago. I am definitely against this dictatorship, and I admire all the kidnapped and disappeared guys' mothers, who continue struggling to find their sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. But besides this, I think the interesting side of the film is that despite our political positions (as I'd previously said, mine is against this dictatorship) we can be sure that everything that's happened to these students is TERRIBLE. Terrible because they were standing up for their ideas, they were asking for a decrease in the students' bus ticket price. Whatever our political position is, we cannot deny the fact that everyone has their right to be judged as a human being. The very talented actors let us see, feel and listen how badly, unfairly and terribly those students were taken away from their homes and relatives; tortured to insanity, rapped and killed with no mercy on 1976. I recommend this film to everyone who would like to know what happened. The film only shows one episode of the whole horrible dictatorship. There were about 30.000 disappeared people between those years, not only students but also Jewish people, artists, politicians, journalists... and many more. La Noche De Los Lápices retells one of the -if not the most- horrible and terrible episode during the dictatorship. As an Argentinean I can tell you all that this film touched my heart and made me cry so hard I could hardly watch it through the tears at times. In spite of the pain the film may provoke, it is a "must" for all those people who ever had a dream, an ideal, a wish. Knowing, by listening to my parents, by reading books and by watching this film, the atrocities occurred that night and every night and every day during the dictatorship make my heart jump and my vocal chords shout as loud as I can: "NEVERMORE". Thank you for reading.