Event

THE NIGHT OF THE PENCILS

(aka EL NOCHE DE LOS LAPICES)
Dir. Hector Olivera, (1986)
ARGENTINA, 105 minutes
In Spanish with English subtitles

The repression of Operation Condor was centrally organized by military commanders of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Broliva, and Brazil, aiming to finally wipe out any traces of marxist or revolutionary thought. Argentina saw the highest numbers of disappeared and executed leftists, between 15-30,000. When democracy returned to Argentina in 1983, Olivera was free to make films about the State terror he witnessed. El Noche de los Lapices depicts the organization of a student strike against increased bus fares in La Plata. Only a few months into the dictatorship, some of these students were kidnapped, raped, tortured, starved, and killed.

Beginning with an seemingly innocent protest against the increase of bus fares in La Plata, a student march is attacked by police. In the night, several of the organizers are rounded up by men posing as police and taken to a dungeon. Used as test subjects for torture, the fate of the students would mirror tens of thousands of others in the coming years. A cultural element in the process for "justice and reconciliation", which included the imprisonment of some of the students' torturers in 1985, Olivera used the testimony of one of the few survivors for his adaptation.