Truly Dreadful Film

One of the best films i have seen

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I watched this absolutely gruesome film sixteen years ago now and I still remember it. I know that there were many films made about Chilia and Argentina dictatorship regimes, but unfortunately most of them did not reach France. Only a batch were available. This one is far better than COLONIA, speaking of Chilia and made for wide audiences, with the happy end which silly sissies crave for. I don't. How can you forget those unbearable scenes of torture whilst torturers' colleagues play ping pong in the backyard?...Of course this film, GARAGE OLIMPO is not destined for wide audiences, not for the squeamish. If you have not seen it yet, run for it. It is available on DVD.

I found it very good for denouncing impunity perpetrated by the task forces of the dictatorship (although distinct reminds me of "The Night of the Pencils"). But just give 8 and not 10 points because it puts all detainees as participants involved in leftist movements, when in fact very few who clung were so involved as to have "name for war". Have to look but in the fact that all but one Montoneros heads survived, same with the heads of ERP, etc. The fact that the "heavy" guerrillas was survive is a proof that they were grabbed "parsley" (sap). At least that's my opinion and this film in generalizing the subversive participation I supposed to do that "all detainees were involved to a greater or lesser extent", something that what I disagree. (I've written this with the help of Google Translator)

Bechis masters both camera and music to create an unbearable atmosphere of repression. Rarely have I seen such overpowering scenes deftly juxtaposed with banal shots of everyday city streets, effectively highlighting the urgent, yet hidden nature of political dissent. Not for the lighthearted, but for those willing to endure a gut-wrenching film for the sake of experiencing the tragic reality of what actually happened in Argentina, Chile and, more disturbingly, what probably is going on right now in places like Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, even as you read this. I definitely think films like this should be shown as a counterweight to the current sanitized version mainstream media feeds us, after being put through the hell of the concentration camp style 'garage olimpo', I doubt anyone would believe much in the hollow promises of militaristic presidents ever again.

This is a powerful, hard-hitting film, depicting the experience of a 'desaparecida' in Argentina at the end of the 1970s. Garage Olimpo examines how 18-year-old Maria copes with a sustained period of imprisonment and torture. One of the most disturbing elements of the film is its exploration of the bond and unexpected power plays that develop between Maria and one of her captors, Felix. Director Marco Bechis deals with the complexity of human relations unflinchingly - asking the viewer to consider the real nature of a range of human responses and experiences: love, hate, attraction, power, sex, sadism, kindness and the almost visceral need for basic physical and emotional contact. He typically heightens the impact of his subject matter through understatement and contrast. This can be seen in his use of sound for example, in which he sets up a ping-pong game or relentlessly upbeat song on the radio as a backdrop to scenes of implied violence. Bechis similarly avoids any direct shots of violence, using the captors' chillingly matter-of-fact attitude or the painstakingly slow build-up to the door closing on a torture room to let the viewers' imagination run riot. This approach is echoed by the cinematography, which after Maria's arrest is largely confined to the undergound network of cells and torture rooms where the prisoners are kept. Bechis uses this framework of restricted vision and heightened sound to reflect and convey the prisoners' experience. This is an unforgettable, disturbing and beautiful film, that sticks with the viewer long after the credits have rolled.