Movies about Latin American dictatorships always make me scared. Bloody and crazy plots abound: conspiracy, assassination, kidnapping, imprisonment, explosion, and I feel heavy and depressed every time I watch it. Countries such as Chile and Argentina have a similar dark history, and Uruguay, a relatively unfamiliar country, is no exception. Judging from the name of the movie, I thought it would be a commercial genre like prison escape or "Prison Situation", but the result was a bit unexpected. There is no escape plot from the beginning to the end of the film, and there is no intrigue in the prison. The story is about three political prisoners who spent twelve years in prison in a cruel life beyond ordinary people’s tolerance. One of them was released from prison. He became the oldest president in the history of Uruguay. However, this is not a biopic in the conventional sense. At least in describing the entire process of imprisonment, I don't feel that one of the prisoners will have anything to do with the leader of a country.
In the director's words, this film should describe people who endure humiliation in extreme environments but still maintain their humanity. From this point of view, it is not difficult to understand that the script focuses on portraying the physical changes of the three characters, from the initial physical strength to the emaciation and weakness after being abused. They are separated and imprisoned in dungeons, without sunlight all day long, unable to distinguish between day and night, forbidden to speak and communicate with others, isolated from the world and unable to know the news of the outside world, and are deprived of the basic living conditions of ordinary people to the greatest extent. In spite of this, they still maintain a high spirit and unyielding spirit, relying on their fingers to knock out a secret signal to communicate through the wall, and use their ability to write love letters for the prison guards, listen to the sound of the typewriter and record information on the soap, and even fight against the guards in a fierce way to fight for themselves. Items.
Although the whole film is full of repressive and desperate atmosphere, the narrative tone does not sink to the end, and occasionally a lot of easy and humorous plot passages are mixed (such as being unable to go to the toilet with handcuffs and attracting many officers, fantasy and Happy family life, etc.). The authenticity of these plots needs to be verified, but through these details, the audience can understand that the spirit of these three characters in extreme environments has not been destroyed. Their love and yearning for freedom drives them to maintain their prison life. Beyond the hope of ordinary people. Especially near the end, with the sound of silence singing (a deserted female voice singing), the three were finally able to meet on the playground, and the scene of playing air football brought the moving emotion to the culmination.
The script design is clever, because it has not become a common subject of political complaints. The director did not over-portrait political events in this prisoner survival story. The alternation of dictatorship and democratic society became the background of the trio’s long and cruel experience. Except for a flashback of a dramatic passage explaining the initial arrest against the police, it feels a little bit. Superfluous. Finally, I had to praise the intentional performance of the three powerful actors. The appeal is quite powerful and it is easy to have a sense of substitution. Follow their performance to experience an unprecedented tenacious survival experience that cannot bear to look straight.
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