I first watched this movie when I was 12 years old. Our primary school teachers wanted us to learn the depth of what had transpired in Argentina's darkest times. It goes without saying that my mind became haunted by what I saw - a couple of kids just a few years older than I, protesting for rights that I was enjoying then (a special bus fee for public school students), and who paid a terrible price for it. Since then I've had the opportunity to watch several flicks focused on showing torture and the darker side of human nature - and mostly they've come off as an angst-ridden teenager's sick and cartoon-like fantasies of what real horror is. There's no romancing the captivity they went through, there's certainly no sugar-coating; the subject matter is treated with solemnity and with a care that not even Saló could ever hope to achieve. That is why, ultimately, the movie truly makes an impact on the viewer; you never can quite forget that everything shown there happened to men, children and women alike.
Review of The Night of the Pencils
