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Chronicle of an Escape (film)
Chronicle of an Escape (2006) is an Argentine film, directed by Israel Adrian Caetano. The screenplay is written by Caetano, Esteban Student, and Julian Loyola, based on the autobiographical Pase libre la fuga de la Mansion Sere written by Claudio Tamburrini. The movie is also known as: Buenos Aires, 1977. The motion picture was produced by Oscar Kramer and Hugo Sigman, and stars Rodrigo de la Serna, Pablo Echarri, Nazareno Casero, and others.
The film was Argentina's entry for the 2007 Golden Globes Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film, and director Israel Adrian Caetano was nominated at the Cannes Film Festival for a Golden Palm.
The film tells the true story of four men who narrowly escaped death at the hands of a military death squad during the Argentinean dirty war in the 1970s.
Plot
In 1977, Claudio Tamburrini (Rodrigo de la Serna) was a goalie for a minor league soccer/futbol team when he was forcefully kidnapped by members of the Argentine secret military police.
He is taken to a detention center known as Sere Mansion: an old dilapidated house in the suburban neighborhood of Moron on the suspicion he is an anti-government terrorist.
Tamburrini is tortured by his jailers frequently. Yet, they look for information he doesn't have because he's not a political activist and never was. Tamburrini expects to be killed by the ruthless guards at any time.
After four months of imprisonment, and many sessions of torture, Tamburrini and his fellow captives Guillermo (Nazareno Casero), Tano (Martin Urruty), and another man dive out a window during a rainstorm.
The four, naked and with noting but their senses, began a desperate flight to freedom.
Background
Basis of film
The film is based on a real political event that took place in Argentina after Jorge Rafael Videla's reactionary military junta assumed power in March 24, 1976. During the ''junta's'' rule: the parliament was suspended, unions, political parties and provincial governments were banned, and in what became known as the Dirty War between 9,000 and 30,000 people deemed left-wing "subversives" disappeared from society.
The film is about one such instance: the kidnapping of Claudio Tamburrini, a goalkeeper of a B-league soccer team, who's taken to a clandestine detention center and tortured. He escaped and wrote Pase libre la fuga de la Mansion Sere a harrowing account of his experience.
Before the production began director Israel Adrian Caetano traveled to meet Tamburrini in Stockholm, where he now lives, to learn the truth about the event. There he also met met Guillermo Fernandez, the man who initiated the breakout. Both former prisoners helped Caetano and the screenwriters stick closely to the theme of the film: survival.
Production
The production was difficult according to Caetano. He said, "The filming was an endless challenge: shooting almost entirely within four walls, trusting the outcome to the acting, the framing, and the light. It was not always easy to generate fear, paranoia, and neurosis from this prison. Our challenge was how to re-create the madness these prisoners endured."
Cast and ratings
Rodrigo de la Serna as Claudio Tamburrini
Pablo Echarri as Huguito
Nazareno Casero as Guillermo Fernandez
Daniel Valenzuela as Aleman
Lautaro Delgado as El Gallego
Matias Marmorato as El Vasco
Martin Urruty as El Tano
Diego Alons as Lucas
Leonardo Bargiga as Capitan Almagro
Critical reception
''The Hollywood Reporter'sJohn DeFore thinks American audiences will like the thriller and its pace, especially after the men escape in the rain. He believes that Chronicle of an Escapewill give American audiences "an icky feeling" when they view the "fact-based Argentinean story through the stylized lens of a horror film. Laced with dread that builds to a thoroughly gripping third act, it should do well with art house audiences who like their history lessons to come with a shot of adrenaline." DeFore, John. The Hollywood Reporter,film review at the Austin Film Festival, October 31, 2006.
Critic Deborah Young, writing for Variety'' magazine, generally liked the film yet felt the film's atonal score was at times irritating. She wrote, "[F]orceful acting plays a key role in giving the story credibility, with De La Serna and Casero lighting the way." She also says the film "feels hollow at the core, leaving a feeling of lingering disappointment over a missed opportunity to probe recent history." Young, Deborah. Variety, "Bottom Line: Real life becomes a horror film in tale of Argentinean secret jail," film review at the Cannes Film Festival, May 27, 2006.
Critic Clark Collis liked the film and wrote, "''Chronicle of an Escape's'' premise may remind you of Sly Stallone's enjoyably preposterous 1981 soccer/incarceration flick, Victory, but this true-story-based movie scores in a different way...The result is blessed with great performances; director Israel Adrian Caetano lets events speak and plead and weep for themselves." Collis, Chris. Entertainment Weekly, film review, November 28, 2007. Last accessed: February 18, 2008.
Stephen Holden, critic for The New York Times, discussed the film from today's political perspective in the United States. He wrote, "Despite its restraint, Chronicle of an Escape is deeply unsettling. Although the events it depicts happened 30 years ago in South America, it inevitably triggers anguished thoughts of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and extraordinary rendition...But as a suspenseful drama of captivity and escape, the movie is a carefully paced, persuasively acted thriller. Its first two-thirds observe Claudios four-month internment, during which he becomes resigned to the idea that he will be killed. Unlike the other captives, he does not belong to a subversive group; midway through the film he discovers to his fury that an acquaintance and fellow prisoner, while under torture, lied and named him as the owner of a mimeograph machine that printed antigovernment leaflets. The message is explicit: Torture may make people talk, but theyll say anything to avoid further abuse." Holden, Stephen. The New York Times, film review, November 30, 2007. Last accessed: February 18, 2008.
Critic Jan Stuart, echoed Stephen Holden, and wrote, "If there is anything more disturbing than any of the tortures glimpsed in the film, it is turning on the evening news afterward and being reminded that the use of such hardball practices are still, in the minds of some, a subject for debate." Stuart, Jan. Newsday, November 28, 2007. Last accessed: February 18, 2008.
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 60% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 15 reviews, marking the film as "Fresh." Chronicle of an Escape at Rotten Tomatoes. Last accessed: February 18, 2008.
Distribution
The film first opened in Argentina on March 24, 2006.
The film was shown at various film festivals, including: the Cannes Film Festival, France; the Toronto Film Festival, Canada; the Toulouse Latin America Film Festival, France; the Espoo Film Festival, Finland; and others.
In the United States it was featured at the Austin Film Festival in Texas on October 26, 2006.
Awards
Wins
Clarin Awards: Clarin Award; Best Director, Adrian Caetano; Best Film; Best New Actor, Nazareno Casero; Best Original Music, Ivan Wyszogrod; Best Screenplay, Adrian Caetano, Esteban Student, and Julian Loyola; Best Supporting Actor, Nazareno Casero; 2006.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Argentina Awards: Premios Sur; Best Supporting Actor, Nazareno Casero; Best New Actor, Nazareno Casero; Best Original Music, Ivan Wyszogrod, 2006. Clarin. "El filme 'Las manos' arraso en la entrega de los Premios Sur," article about film awards, December 12, 2006.
Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor, Best Editing, Alberto Ponce; Best Film; Best Adapted Screenplay, Adrian Caetano, Julian Loyola, and Esteban Student; 2007.
Nominations
Cannes Film Festival: Golden Palm, Adrian Caetano, 2006.
Independent Spirit Awards: Independent Spirit Award Best Foreign Film, Adrian Caetano, Argentina, 2007.
Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor, Best Actor, Rodrigo De la Serna; Best Art Direction, Juan Mario Roust and Jorge Ferrari; Best Cinematography, Julian Apezteguia; Best Director, Adrian Caetano; Best Music, Ivan Wyszogrod; Best Sound, Fernando Soldevila; Best Supporting Actor, Nazareno Casero; Best Supporting Actor, Pablo Echarri; 2007.
External links
Cronica de una fuga at the cinenacional.com .
Cronica de una fuga review at La Nacion by Fernando Lopez .
Cronica de una fuga review at LeerCine by Santiago Garcia .
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Chronicle of an Escape (film)
