La larga noche de Francisco Sanctis

LA LARGA NOCHE DE FRANCISCO SANCTIS is an adaptation of a novel by Humberto Costantini, set during the 1976–1983 military dictatorship in Argentina. It follows a resignated office worker, silently coexisting with the regime, as he receives potentially life-saving information about a young couple under threat of abduction. All of a sudden he has to make up his mind. Anxiously, he is roaming the streets of the city. The film’s use of drab colours, close-ups and short focus effectively creates the world of a man hemmed in not just by political repression, but also by his disappointing middle-management job and abandoned youthful dreams. The nocturnal Buenos Aires is uncomfortably multicoloured, blurry, inapprehensible. The film’s atmosphere of suffocation and claustrophobia is augmented by an impressively controlled performance from Diego Velázquez as Francisco, who looks to be about to explode from fear, frustration or regret at any moment. (Paul Merchant)